Chapter Eight. A New Role: Now You’re Dedicated!

The good news is, you are making some progress in the change effort. The bad news is, you still have to get all your other work done! The patterns in this chapter will help as you move to take the next big step—making the change effort part of your job. The patterns are Dedicated Champion(129), Local Sponsor(186), Corporate Angel(123), Early Adopter(138), and Early Majority(141).

Each Evangelist makes his or her own way through this pattern language. For a host of reasons, it may be that the patterns we have described so far will be all that you have a chance to apply. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Many times you can have limited success by just spreading the word about something new to a few innovative colleagues and giving a couple of presentations to others in your organizations. After that, the idea may be adopted to a certain extent and then your attention is drawn elsewhere. But if you’d like to take the new idea further and make it a part of your job, read on.

The patterns we describe in this chapter require resources and commitment from management. To make real headway, you will have to be able to apply the pattern Dedicated Champion(129), that is, the change initiative must become part of your job description. The “dedication” we are talking about involves two things. The first is the passion for the innovation—you still have to keep the enthusiasm articulated in the Evangelist pattern. The second, newer component, essential for real impact, is the support of the organization for you to continue your work. The recognition that the change initiative is deserving of this attention will probably come from your boss. We describe this role in the pattern Local Sponsor(186).

When we give presentations and tutorials about this material, the most frequently asked question is, “How can I convince my manager to let me become a Dedicated Champion?” The answer, of course, is patterns! Start by devoting your own time as an Evangelist. To become convinced that the new idea has value for your organization, use the other patterns described in Chapter 3: Test the Waters, Time for Reflection, Small Successes, and Step by Step. Begin to accumulate data. Determine, as best you can, how many people are using the new approach and capture the results they are seeing. Document the testimonials, especially if you use the pattern Guru on Your Side (introduced in Chapter 4). Count the number of people who show up when you use the pattern Brown Bag (introduced in Chapter 5), who sign up when you use the pattern Study Group (introduced in Chapter 6), and who are on your list when you use the pattern e-Forum (introduced in Chapter 5). Track the people who ask for copies of articles or books when you use Plant the Seeds or External Validation (both introduced in Chapter 5).

Scour the publications your management favors to find references that will be meaningful. Trade publications that feature your competitors are also powerful persuaders. Use Tailor Made (introduced in Chapter 7) and speak the language your managers understand.

At some point you will also need the pattern Corporate Angel(123), so look for opportunities to capture the interest of a high-level executive, who can ensure that your work is aligned with business needs. This is the role described by popular speaker and author Lew Losoncy: “The most vital task of the leader is to motivate, inspire, empower and encourage the team’s primary resource—the unlimited, creative human potential to find better ways.”

Once you have enlisted the support of management at any level, don’t forget them and don’t let them forget you. Remember the pattern Stay in Touch (introduced in Chapter 5). David Baum describes the importance of this in his entertaining book on change, Lightning in a Bottle.

Let’s briefly examine the issue of communication. What’s needed can be summed up in one word—more! Communication is usually underexecuted by a factor of ten. Finding proactive ways to keep information flowing is essential. The last thing you want is for your [management] to feel embarrassed because they lack information. It doesn’t take long for embarrassment to turn to frustration and frustration to anger. Your attempts to keep a communication link with your [management] will pay off handsomely in the end.^[*]

You Have Convinced Them!—You Are a Dedicated Champion

When the three patterns Dedicated Champion, Local Sponsor, and Corporate Angel are in place, you should have the time to reach the wider community and not just the Innovators. You must capture the support of those described in the patterns Early Adopters(138) and Early Majority(141), because as Geoffrey Moore writes in Crossing the Chasm, “The real news is the deep and dividing chasm that separates the Early Adopters from the Early Majority. This is by far the most formidable and unforgiving transition in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, and it is all the more dangerous because it typically goes unrecognized.”

It will take more work to attract Early Adopters and those in the Early Majority. The Innovators “come for free” because they like new ideas. Early Adopters need to be convinced that the idea is useful to the organization, while those in the Early Majority need to see that others have been successful before they are influenced to try the innovation.

From David Baum’s Lightning in a Bottle again:

If your change process is like most, about 15% of your folks are going to be thrilled and will only want to know what took you so long. About 15% will utterly reject the need to change, and won’t be happy no matter what you do. The remaining 70% will sit on the fence and quietly watch to see who’s winning.

This middle 70% is where you need to put most of your time and energy. That is where the victories really count. The 15% who are positively excited will need very little support and encouragement. They are already motivated by the change. For the negative 15%, there may be nothing you can do.^[*]

Linda worked at AG Communication Systems for five years. It was from her experience that many of the patterns were initially created. At the time Linda was applying them, she didn’t even know they were patterns!

I was just back from a conference and I had been talking about some new ideas I had picked up. I was surprised when my boss asked me to give a presentation to our vice-president at his next staff meeting. I thought this was a chance to tell our management about a good idea. I had no grand plans for spreading the word about my ideas or anything more than conveying development information. To my surprise, the executive team was very enthusiastic about patterns and could clearly see the long-term benefit to the company of sharing good design solutions and other aspects of the telecommunications business. They were obviously more farsighted than I was. That was the beginning of a new adventure for me. I was moved to a new department with a very supportive manager and the corporate world suddenly opened up. I saw firsthand what high-level sponsorship and management can do.

The downside was that instead of using my spare time and giving a couple of Brown Bags to interested Innovators, I had to show benefit to the more pragmatic developers in our company. People began stopping by and asking for information. I was called upon to give more presentations and mentoring to groups who wanted to try the new technology. My manager followed my work pretty closely at first and I had the feeling that he was checking things off to report to his boss. Things went well, but it was a change from the old Evangelist mode to more serious business.

Even if you’re successful in becoming a Dedicated Champion, you still need to convince people to try the new idea. The patterns in the next chapter will help you do that. They require more time and effort on your part, but you can tackle these because the change initiative is now part of your job.