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March 2007 FAQ:
Tour of Duty
By: Dutch Holland,
PhD
Question:
: I
have been asked to help my organization
make a big change in the way we do
business. We have a clear direction but
we are having trouble getting some of
the key managers to get on board and get
things moving. What might be the
problem?
Answer:
Simple. It’s one of only a thousand
possibilities … and good luck finding
the real reason(s) for lack of
motivation. I would like to suggest one
possibility, however, that we don’t
always take into account: a manager’s
“tour of duty.”
For those
who have served in the military, tour of
duty is a familiar term. It means the
length of time that an individual will
serve in a particular job. It is not
unusual, in fact, to be given an
assignment with a specific number of
months or years to serve in that job
until reassignment.
Managers in
business frequently have tours of duty as well, although they
are frequently not spelled out as clearly, or in some cases, not
even discussed. You have to gauge a manager’s tour of duty by
the company’s track record. For example, we have one client that
moves its managers to a different job every 18 months, plus or
minus a couple.
How is tour of
duty connected to change? Trying to get a manager to “get
behind” a change when he/she has only 6 more months to go is
like trying to move a mountain. Why should the manager take any
of the risks of changing the way his part of the organization
does business when he can keep a steady course and leave the
current job with a good grade?
The rules of
thumb you might consider are as follows:
- When working to support a
change effort, look for managers whose tour of duty has enough
time left to see a change through to the end … so she can
leave the job as a star.
- Break changes into chunks that
can be accomplished in less time than tours of duty. (In our
example company, change must bring results in far less than 18
months or there will be a disconnect.)
- Make sure to calculate the
collective tour of duty when dealing with a management team.
So good luck in
finding the reasons for reluctance to change. Just remember,
there are only a thousand possibilities, but check “tour of
duty” early on to see if you don’t get a hit!
If you have a question you would like to have addressed in the coming months, please give us your suggestions or comments on our guest book.
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