如何避免企業變革項目失敗

Change is good. It’s also inevitable, terrifying, and fraught—particularly “breakthrough change,” otherwise known as the kind of change that will make everyone very uncomfortable and some of them unemployed.

變革是件好事。它是在所避免的，也是令人害怕和憂慮的，特別是“突破性變革”，那種會讓所有人都非常不舒服，導致其中部分人失業的變革。

We’ve all come across the many business books that attempt to tell us how to become a change agent. But what we haven’t read much about is how, exactly, we should lead change within an organization. There’s been tons of blue sky, and not so much boots on the ground.

許多商業書籍都試圖告訴人們如何成爲變革推動者，這類書我們屢見不鮮。但是，究竟怎樣在一家組織中引領變革，則甚少有書提及。天馬行空的理論太多，而腳踏實地的建議很少。

Which is why I liked David Pottruck’s new book, Stacking the Deck: How to Lead Breakthrough Change Against Any Odds, so much. First, a disclaimer: I have known David since 2005, when I spent several months trying to convince him to talk about what it felt like to be publicly fired (he was co-CEO of Charles Schwab), and how he recovered his personal and professional balance afterwards. Incredibly, he agreed, and the resulting piece showcases a rarity—a humbled, vulnerable executive.

我喜歡戴維o波特拉克最新著作的原因就在此。其大作名爲《預先準備：如何突破所有障礙，引領突破性變革》（Stacking the Deck: How to Lead Breakthrough Change Against Any Odds）。首先聲明，2005年我就與戴維相識。當時，我花了幾個月來說服他，想讓他談談被公開解僱【他曾是嘉信理財（Charles Schwab）聯合首席執行官】的感受，以及之後他是怎樣在個人和職業方面重新實現平衡。不可思議的是，他答應了我的要求。從我就此寫出的報道中可以看出，戴維是少見的謙卑而又居於弱勢的公司高管。

The good news is that Pottruck recovered, and he has since founded and invested in several companies. All the while, he continued to teach an executive education class at Wharton on breakthrough change—something he had done successfully at Schwab and elsewhere. The book comes out of his teaching, but is supplemented by extensive interviews he conducted with current top executives such as Intel President Renee James, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, JetBlue CEO Dave Barger, and others.

好消息是他恢復了過來，成立並投資了數家公司，而且一直在沃頓商學院的高管培訓課上教授突破性變革——在嘉信理財以及其他公司，他都成功實現了突破性變革。這本書來源於他的教義，但他還補充了大量對現任高管的訪談，包括英特爾（Intel）總裁詹睿妮、星巴克（Starbucks）首席執行官霍華德o舒爾茨和捷藍航空（JetBlue）首席執行官戴夫o巴格爾等。

The book is broken down into two parts; one the “Stacking the Deck process,” in which Pottruck offers nine specific steps to create and lead the change process in your organization; and the second, a higher level look at the kinds of skills needed to motivate and inspire your team. The key point, he says, is a simple one, but it bears repeating: “Leading change requires leading people. Any transformation you propose, small or large, will ultimately not succeed if you don’t have the leadership skills to drive the process forward.”

這本書分兩部分：第一部分是關於“預先準備過程”，波特拉克在此具體介紹了在企業內部形成並引領變革的九個步驟；第二部分更進一步，探討了鼓舞和激勵團隊成員所需要的技巧。他說，要點很簡單，但值得反覆強調，那就是：“變革需要有領導力的人來引領。如果不具備推動變革所需的領導技能，你所倡導的變革無論大小，最終都不會成功。”

Pottruck is very specific in his how-to (each chapter ends with a one-page action plan to help bring each step to life), but he also brings much of the responsibility back to the leader. It is the leader’s job to understand just how stressful this process is, to celebrate victories when they occur, to develop an overarching vision that allows people to foresee the endgame, and—perhaps most important—how to determine which kinds of people should be on the change team. Metrics are important, but they can be overused, Pottruck says. “Remember that leading a breakthrough change is fundamentally about creating and managing both the actual momentum and the perception of momentum.”

在具體如何操作上，波特拉克講得非常具體（每個章節末尾都有一頁行動方案，來幫助讀者實現每個步驟）。不過，他也把大部分責任重新放回領導者肩上。領導者要明白變革過程的壓力之大，在取得勝利時要慶祝，還要提出整體願景，讓大家預見最終的結果。同時，也許最爲重要的是，領導者還要能識人，知道哪些人應該進入變革團隊。波特魯克認爲，衡量指標很重要，但可能被濫用：“要記住，從根本上說，領導突破性變革，就是既要產生並管理實際動力，又要形成並管理對這股動力的認知。”

What I enjoyed most about Stacking the Deck was Pottruck’s discussion about how a leader can communicate to inspire—and how, more than anything, authenticity is what matters. He uses a touching example of a speech from Howard Schultz, who, in his first week back at CEO of Starbucks, with sales collapsing, burst into tears while apologizing for the company’s performance. “I hadn’t gone in there planning to cry, but I was apologizing that we as leaders had let them, the workers and their families, down.”

在這本書中，我最喜歡的部分是波特拉克談到的兩個問題，一是領導者怎樣通過溝通來達到激勵他人的目的；二是真誠有多重要。他舉了一個感人的例子：重新擔任星巴克CEO的第一週，霍華德o舒爾茨在演講時痛哭流涕。當時星巴克銷售額不斷下滑，舒爾茨爲公司業績不佳道歉。舒爾茨後來說：“上臺發言時我沒打算流眼淚，但當時我是代表領導層道歉，爲我們讓員工及其家人失望道歉。”

Had Schultz faked that emotion, the company might never have made it to the turnaround. But he didn’t—and then, once having established the connection, he was able to rally his store managers to be accountable for their stores’ performance. Writes

如果舒爾茨當時是在做戲，星巴克也許永遠也無法扭轉局面。但他的表現是真情流露——而建立了情感紐帶後，他就能鼓舞各店鋪經理對自己門店的業績負責。波特拉克寫道：“就變革進行溝通時，動機（以行動換取獎勵）沒那麼重要，更重要的是激勵（讓人從內心產生渴望，想參與真正的重大事件，併爲之做出貢獻）。”這是非常棒的一課，而且對解釋了爲何衆多變革項目以失敗告終大有幫助。