Gregg Patterson: Leather Up

Gregg Patterson

Founder and President

“Tribal Magic!!!”

Change Is a PAIN

Creativity is all about introducing the new, the different and the improved—but the journey to NEW isn’t easy and it isn’t painless for Change Managers who make NEW and DIFFERENT happen.   Emotional stuff—and protection’s needed.

Change will always create friction, resistance and blow-back because club cultures have traditions, momentum and a deeply embedded historical direction and changing course will create a bumpy ride.  Members and staff don’t like their routines changed, their expectations altered, their core values questioned and they don’t take kindly to Change Managers who generate “creative dissonance” within the culture.

Change is a PAIN generator for managers.  Because they want to be loved, honored and employed “long time-big time”, G.M.’s are hesitant to rock the boat and upset the board, the members and the staff.  They want to achieve great things and be memorialized in myth and legend as heroes and heroines.  Change Managers want to accomplish all that without confrontation, hysterics or sleepless nights BUT—it ain’t going to happen!!!!!!!

Times are changing FAST, changes are needed and change agents are a “must have” to make change happen.  These brave souls, these G.M.’s, these Change Managers need to be steeled against the social and emotional pounding that accompanies change.   What to anticipate?  How to prepare?  How to thicken the skin and stiffen resolve?

If a manager’s seen the need for change and is eager to become a change agent—or if they’re thrust into The Change Manager’s role, like it or not—they need to consider a few of the people pitfalls they’ll encounter during The Journey-to-Change.

Consider these challenges and “leather-up”…………….

Change Challenges

Every Change Manager, every creative personality who’s tried to move employees, committees, boards and members from where they are now to where they’d like them to be, has encountered the same “people challenges” and the same emotional pummeling sometime during the change adventure.  Consider these change challenges and take comfort from a bit of Shakespeare……..”Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

It’s Going to Get Lonely: Friends, confidants and supporters evaporate when controversies arise.  It’s YOU against the world.  Get primed for loneliness.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Gotta Articulate and Defend the Vision:  The Change Manager needs to articulate the “Change Vision” LOTS in clear and understandable language and then defend that vision against the roadblockers who love to insult your thinking and say NO to the changes.  Painful stuff—saying it right, getting pummeled for saying it, and then fighting back against the Yowlers and Howlers.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Nay-Sayers Will Enjoy Giving The Changer the Third Degree:  Change Managers will encounter nay-sayers in the card room, grill room, first tee, boardroom and staff lounge.  Negative types will find it amusing to skewer the Changer loudly and personally—and will enjoy the public humiliation they deliver.  “Nay saying” and stirring the pot are great fun.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Change Managers Become the Face-of-Change and Will be the Focal Point Of Conversation: Change Managers can’t hide, are public property and an easy target for abuse and harassment and will become the bogeyman for the changes being made.  Their presence will energize passions and opinions and their motives, methods and results will be questioned vocally, publicly and often.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Growing Muscle Memory: The Change Manager’s vision of The Good is often deeply at odds with the “muscle memory” of the staff and the “expectations memory” of the members.  Changes don’t stick until people make those changes part of the culture—part of the club’s “Muscle Memory”.  Getting new ideas to STICK is difficult, time consuming, frustrating and discouraging.  Constant oversight, correction, repetition and reinforcement are “must do’s”.  Generating STICK “ain’t easy” and it isn’t fun.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Changers Will Second-Guess and Agonize over the Changes They’ve Made:  Change Managers are frequently bruised by members and staff and second guessing the decisions they’ve made is natural, inevitable and painful.  Agonizing questions arise. Is this change right for these players, these circumstances and this club?  Did I do the change right—did I do the change wrong?  DOUBT—questioning the Who, the What, the How and The Why—is part of the process and healthy.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Trust Takes Time:  A track record of success is the engine of trust.  Until the Manager’s goodwill bank account is filled with operational victories, there’ll be no trust and without trust there’ll be no psychic peace.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

The Lieutenants Are “The Manager” in the Member’s Eye:  A manager will be judged by the lieutenants they select, cultivate and keep. Their every step is examined and critiqued and are considered reflections of the leader who chose them.  Choosing the RIGHT lieutenants right is nerve wracking.  Ensuring the Lieutenants “do good” is nerve wracking.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.      

The Symbol of The Good—or The Bad:  The Change Manager will be a symbol of the club’s success—or failure.  People look up to the G.M. to carry them forward, to slay the dragons, to make them proud to be who they are as a community.  Whether the Change Agent likes it or not, they become the symbol of “the new direction.”  If the new direction succeeds, the Change Agent is cheered as a hero and if the new direction fails, they’ll be ridiculed, scorned and rejection.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Will This Change Be Enough:  Change Agents love the adrenalin hit of change and are often bored senseless by the routines needed to maintain those changes.  They hunger for the next challenge, the next Big Change that will stretch them to a new level of achievement.  Is a new type of leadership needed?  Does the manager stay, or does the manager go—for their good and that of the club?  Answering that question is a challenge for both the G.M. and the club.  Emotional Stuff—get used to it.

Leather Up:

At some point in a Manager’s career, they’ll become an agent of operational or policy change.  It won’t be easy, it won’t be fun, it won’t be pretty but it’ll always be interesting, challenging and endlessly entertaining.  Emotions need protection.  Knowing “what’s coming” will help a Change Manager “leather up.”

Prepare for the Change Adventure.  Anticipate the challenges.  Align your expectations.  Don your armor.

And enjoy the adventure……………..