Henry IV was a Shakespearean play that was written many years ago. But in that play, William Shakespeare has one line that has been taken and used many times for people who have prestige and power, but are also made to realize that along with it comes responsibility. That one line is: Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
I think yesterday's news of Mr. Cyrus Mistry being replaced with former Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata as Chairman of the Tata Group, has come as a shock for most people who even seem to be in the know of what is happening. Yet, it seems that the old adage is so true – along with power and prestige comes a responsibility of shaping and nurturing and leading an organization to the satisfaction of stakeholders. It seems as if that didn't happen for Mr. Mistry. Picked as a very young person at the age of 44 to succeed Mr. Ratan Tata; by 48 he's going to go down in history, at least in the annals of Tata Sons, as the shortest-serving Chairman.
But it's early days. The news is just out. At the very outset, the thing that grabbed my attention was how decisively the Tata Group moved. I was impressed with that and I thought that it was a good takeaway from something that has happened barely 24 hours ago. I was looking at some of the actions that they took and found that once they knew where they had to go, then they moved very decisively. In fact, it says that almost a month before this happened, they called in former Solicitor General, Mr. Mohan Parasaran, and got a legal opinion from him on management and how they could move in this area. Once they had taken that decision that this was where they were going to replace Cyrus Mistry, then they began to move very swiftly. Having once again taken over as Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata dismantled Mistry's Group Executive Council. He instituted a search committee immediately with the mandate that within 4 months they would be able to come up with a few nominees for the new post of Chairperson of the Tata Group. They replaced this position with a person of great credibility to lead in the interim. They sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Mody, keeping him informed about developments in the company. All this was done so swiftly and impressively.
I think that is one of the characteristics that must always accompany change – that when change happens, it must happen decisively. I was thinking about other precedents where former chairmen have come back. In recent history we've seen that happen with Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Michael Bloomberg and Mr. Narayana Murthy of Infosys. In all of these instances, once a decision was taken, then they moved very quickly to stem what seemed to be a ''rot'' (because we are not sure what was going on at Tata Sons), but to stem what seems to be an unpleasant situation for the Board. However the chips fall in the days to come, Tata Sons Board has shown what decisive leadership is all about, especially in the area of initiating change.
This made me think about change management. What are some things that we need to understand? Whether we like it or not, change happens and must happen in the area that we work in. as we go through our day and look at the work, if we feel that there are things going on that are not particularly to our liking, or are not good for the job that we are doing or the company that we are serving, then it is incumbent upon us to act and to bring about change.
I like this article that was written by a couple of authors, John Jones, DeAnne Aquirre & Matthew Calderone. They outline ten principles of change management, a few of which caught my attention.
· The first, and think the most important, they say is to address the 'human side' systematically. Any significant transformation creates 'people issues.'
I thought that was so important because there are going to be so many responses and reactions to what is happening. Morale is at risk in an organization because there are alignments that are made that are now uncertain. So you've got to be able to take care of the human dimension immediately.
· You've got to start at the top. You've got to look at change from the top down and make sure that the people at the top are the ones who need to be at the top or whether change needs to happen at that level too.
· Involve every layer. Every level in the organization must be dealt with. We have to look at it at every level to see that if we are making change at one point, that it goes through at all the levels and that it is accepted at all levels. A cascading effect happens throughout the organization.
· Make the formal case. People like to understand why something has happened. One needs to be able to go to the group and say, "Here's why this change happened. These are the reasons."
· Create ownership. Try to get people on your side so that they too are able to own the change that is happening.
Those are five of the ten principles that the authors gave, but due to lack of time, I'm going to stop there. If you'd like to read that article, it's entitled "10 Principles of Change Management" found in Strategy+Business.
But all this made me think about where you and I are. Decisiveness is a key ingredient of good leadership – to be decisive in what we need to do. I wonder whether you are struggling with some issue and wondering what to do about it – whether you need to move on it or not. Maybe today is the day that you need to think that you probably need to act decisively in a particular area. If you are going to act decisively, then take a leaf out of the way the Tata Group has handled the situation and act according to that or to the principles that I outlined in Change Management.
Either way, when issues like this happen, I always look at it and say, "What's my takeaway? How can I learn something from what has happened and institute something in my own life? Do I need to bring about change in something?" maybe it's not corporate. Maybe the change needs to happen in your own life and maybe you've been procrastinating till now. Maybe today is the day to be decisive and say, "Change needs to happen in my life. I've been allowing a malaise to continue on untethered and I need to rein it in. I need to bring about change." Maybe today is the day to deal decisively with that change.
May I pray with you? Almighty God.
We look at the world around us and we see lots of movement happening. It may or may not affect some of us who are on this call or will read this post. But we can glean principles from it that we can put into our own lives. Maybe You know that some change is required in the work that we are doing or in our own personal lives. If there is, we ask, Almighty God, that You would bring that front and center to each one of us today, that we would have the courage of conviction to deal decisively with what needs to be done. We ask for Your wisdom as we do it. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.
• Indian Express, 25 October, 2016, "Tata Sons sacks chairman Mistry in 'long-term interest,' Ratan Tata is back to hold fort for now."
• Economic Times, 25 October, 2016, "Mistry ends, Mystery begins,"
• John Jones, DeAnne Aguirre & Matthew Calderone, 10 Principles of Change Management."http://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?gko=643d0
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