CHAPTER 11

STEP #8: FERRET OUT SKEPTICS AND NONBELIEVERS EARLY

If you asked me when I joined what I intended to do, or what I was going to do, I would have said I absolutely have no intention of changing out my senior team.

—FRANçOIS LOCOH-DONOU, CEO, F5 NETWORKS

Of all the steps in successfully renovating your culture, this is the hardest one.

Intuitively, most understand the necessity. To be successful, make sure naysayers, skeptics, blockers, nonbelievers, doubters, and pessimists are out of the way. Make way for the proponents, advocates, supporters, executers, achievers—that’s how a culture change will get done. As Jim Collins famously wrote in Good to Great, focus on “First Who, Then What.” Get the right people on the bus before figuring ...

Get Culture Renovation: 18 Leadership Actions to Build an Unshakeable Company now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.