The late CEO of Porsche, Peter Schutz, spent much of his retirement speaking to Vistage Groups around the world sharing the lessons he learned leading the remarkable turnaround of the iconic car company in the 1970’s and 80s.
Early in his tenure at Porsche, he was challenged by an employee as to why the managers and directors were necessary, since it seemed to the employee that the real value creation was happening on the production floor. Mr. Schutz agreed with the employee that management was not at all necessary…..until something changed.
What changed recently for all of us was Covid. Among the many changes wrought by the pandemic was the requirement to work from home (WFH) that many soon found it to their liking, creating a resistance to return to the pre-covid work model. Many executives who want more of their teams back in the office more of the team are finding that taking back a benefit like WFH (intended or not) is never easy.
Be it WFH or any other issue, a mental model for coping with change and the stakeholders who want more or less of it had better be in every executive’s tool kit.
A short article from the Kellogg School offers such a framework for addressing the four major obstacles to change, using the challenge of getting employees back to the office as an example. If you want “To Get Employees Back to the Office, Address these Four Frictions.”
(For more on Mr. Schutz and management lessons from his turnaround of Porsche, I suggest his book “The Driving Force: Extraordinary Results from Ordinary People” )
