In a workshop with founders of fast growing companies, some of them shared with me their preferred approach to managing people through transformational change.
It’s your job.
I am already paying you to be here.
So just get on with it.
So I asked them how effective they found this approach to be. They all agreed that their leadership style produced apparently good results at the beginning. But over time, their teams would slip back to past behaviours.
The change was immediate, but it was also temporary.
Types Of Conformity
What these founders were confronting is the difference between public and private conformity (i.e. compliance versus internalization). Social Psychological research makes a distinction between people’s public behaviour and their internal feelings towards that behaviour.
- Compliance occurs when people engage in behaviour that is required by leaders, but they don’t feel positive towards or approve of the change.
- Internalization occurs when people engage in behaviour that is required by leaders, and they also feel positive towards or approve of the change.
In previous articles, I have defined buy-in as the combination of positive evaluation and active participation. If you have one, but not the other, you don’t have buy-in.
This explains why the founders had what looked like success in the beginning, but didn’t last in the long term. They had:
- Active participation without positive evaluation.
- Public compliance without internalization.
- Prisoners or soldiers, but not champions.
There is a good sign to show that people are being forced to comply. This is how quickly they are happy to go back to their previous ways of working, if they are given even the slightest chance to do so.
Creating Buy-In
The best way to create change that lasts is to get a certain level of buy-in. Rather than force people to comply, you can start by working with early adopters or champions to create positive results and a buzz around your initiative.
Over time, you will be able to attract more people to willingly join your initiative. This approach takes longer, but is more likely to produce lasting change.
So don’t be fooled by the illusion of conformity. It is better to drive change in a way that creates genuine buy-in from your teams.