10 Sourcing Change Management Lessons from the US Presidential Election

Lessons, you say? From that circus called a U.S. presidential election? Believe it or not, the high jinks of the candidates provide great learnings for shared services and outsourcing leaders. Here are my top 10: Invest in a ground strategy. Obama relatively quietly covered all his bases on the ground while the other chap’s camp did swish donor dinners. The lesson here? Hearts and minds count. While picking off the big cats is important, it’s the vote of the business line leaders and their middle management that count. Focus on the swing stakeholders. If the election taught us only one thing, it’s that not all stakeholders matter. Some will always be anti-shared services or outsourcing, while others will embrace the concept—or at least throw a few heads into the equation. It’s always the stakeholders that can swing either way that really matter. At the end of the day, a few housewives in Ohio called the electoral shots; in sourcing change, it’s those on the fence that give validity to a sourcing initiative. Don’t go too radical. Despite a resonant message on the economy, going beyond the social values pale ultimately sunk Mr. Romney. And there’s a lesson here for sourcing leaders: don’t try to turn the organization upside down by moving so far away from the status quo that potential stakeholders either think the initiative is delusional, or impossible to implement. Get endorsements from your toughest critics. Republican governor Chris Christie’s endorsement of Obama’s moves on Hurricane Sandy was like manna from heaven for the Democrat’s campaign. When the usually inconvincible say something nice about shared services and outsourcing programs, others stand up and take notice. Tell the truth. While this campaign reached a new low in terms of trashing…or bending the truth…outright lies are always discounted. In a shared services or outsourcing context, saying that sourcing will make everyone happy campers and unilaterally lead the organization on to bigger and better things with a flick of the switch is more than a stretch. Smart sourcing leaders are straight about what their initiatives will deliver. Be prepared. Obama’s disastrous first campaign performance highlights the necessity to be prepared at all times, taking nothing for granted. Certainly he had an excuse as president, carrying a heavy burden of responsibility, but his lack of preparedness was not only patronizing to his audience ("I have this nailed"), but gave Romney a chance to look very presidential. By extrapolation, shoddy presentation to a stakeholder has the same effect: you are not that important. Go for the long haul. By election eve, few remembered the gaffes, the bad ads, the ad nauseum robo-calls, the various interpretations of the truth, and the supercilious expressions during the debates. Ultimately, elections—and successful sourcing implementations—are all about results. Read the polls. The Romney campaign’s refusal to read the writing on the wall by ignoring the polls was a fatal flaw; the staff never really knew which way the electorate was leaning, meaning that rapid course corrections were impossible. The lesson: constantly taking the pulse of stakeholders is a critical component of successful sourcing change. Don’t pander. Having a different message for every constituency is a recipe for electoral disaster; eventually someone will connect the dots. The same is true for sourcing; don’t confuse tailoring the message with keeping the core message fundamentally the same. Be likeable. Political wisdom says that, at the end of the day, people vote for those candidates with whom they’d rather sit down and have a beer. Although neither candidate was a warm and fuzzy type, the electorate believed that Obama was more of a regular guy than Romney. The old axiom "people do business with people they like" is instructive for shared services and outsourcing leaders. Connect with Deborah Kops at www.sourcingchange.com. [inlinead]

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10 Sourcing Change Management Lessons from the US Presidential Election

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