PREFACE

I was an eager fourteen-year-old when I started working parttime in my father’s model airplane factory. My early excitement soon dissipated as I learned what assembly line work was all about. Putting balsa wood parts in boxes hour after hour is not exactly exciting work. I measured my time by the number of minutes until my next break. The time clock became my best friend. I punched in and punched out.

All of my colleagues had ideas about how to make work easier. For the most part, these ideas remained idle chatter on the line. Disengagement grew as the boxes went by one by one. With no outlet for our ideas, boredom set in as we watched the clock and waited for the buzzer to alert us that our next break had begun. Sure, I could lobby my dad over dinner or on the drive home, but that communication line was not available to everyone.

George, my supervisor, would often take me aside and give advice on how to get through to “the old man.” George’s advice was helpful at work and at home. Yet when I would offer ideas to George about how to improve productivity, despite my being the boss’s son, the message was pretty much “Shut up and do what you are told.” George was a good guy; he just believed that because he was the boss, he was right.

I graduated from line work to become a machinist’s helper. There, I learned to put tools back in their exact place, not one centimeter to the right or left. I didn’t know why Fred, the machinist, was so fussy. My job was to do whatever Fred told me to do. What I really wanted to do was learn how to work the lathe. Instead, day after day, I swept the floors clean, only to clean them over and over again. I learned disengagement firsthand.

LEARNING THE BUSINESS TAUGHT ME WHY ENGAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT

Work in my dad’s factory had engaging moments as well. I had jobs where the clock was irrelevant. These jobs gave me responsibility. They challenged me to think. I ran the shipping department and learned the intricacies of working with truckers and shippers. I navigated a testy relationship with an alcoholic freight-elevator operator. I worked in the front office and learned the importance of cost accounting and inventory control. I worked on special projects to improve productivity and yield. Through these experiences, I learned that everyone has ideas about how to increase production while making work easier.

I was privy to my father’s musings about how to motivate the workforce. Today, people would call him paternalistic in the most positive sense of the word. He really cared about the people who worked for him. He often stayed late into the night so that the machines would be in good working order the next day. He felt responsible and didn’t want people who worked for him to lose a day’s pay because the machinery didn’t work. His efforts to engage people frequently did not bear fruit. Had Terms of Engagement been available to him, he would have devoured it. But it wasn’t. He did the best he could, but unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough. He was deeply hurt when the workers unionized.

MY FATHER INITIATED CHANGES WITH GOOD INTENTIONS—BUT THEY FAILED

He puzzled over why people didn’t accept the changes he initiated. In his mind, his changes would benefit everyone. Seeing my father’s name in graffiti on bathroom walls was hard to take. It made me realize something was wrong. I began to observe what worked and what did not. The vision behind this book began to take shape.

In college, not surprisingly, I studied industrial management as the heir apparent to the model airplane world. One day, in a class on time and motion studies, the professor droned on about motivation and incentive piece rates. He characterized human beings solely as economic commodities. I felt as if I were listening to someone from another planet. I recalled my working experiences. I knew his thinking was shallow and primitive. It was not in sync with the creativity and ingenuity I had encountered daily. At that moment, I knew there had to be a better way to motivate people, and I knew it was starting to take shape in my mind.

So I made it my job to study motivation at work in the military, as a young second lieutenant. I experienced one incident that taught me that leadership is more than giving orders. One morning during officer training, someone we did not respect was leading my squad and me. There was grumbling in the ranks as he strode toward us. When he shouted “Follow me,” no one moved. We made a statement: we would not follow orders from someone we did not respect. I learned a powerful lesson: officers had the power to give orders; soldiers could choose how to carry them out. (Does this sound similar to anyplace you’ve worked?)

When I left the military, I was fortunate to participate in early organization development experiments in the Bell telephone system. As the repair service manager for Chicago’s southwest side, I led an organization that serviced about 180,000 people and Midway Airport. Team building helped my group become the top performer in the city in every productivity and customer service measure. I was especially proud of our safety record. Every day we put eighty-five trucks on the Chicago streets. We went an entire year without a traffic accident. We did not build that record by increasing the number of safety lectures or demonstrations. Instead, we changed the relationship between the supervisor and the crew.

At General Foods, I participated in early experiments in self-directed work teams. There I learned that when you increase autonomy, provide timely performance feedback, and offer the opportunity to learn and grow on the job, productivity climbs.

THEN I BECAME PART OF THE PROBLEM!

In 1981, the Axelrod Group began consulting to industry. Our primary method for bringing about organizational change in those days was what I now call “the old change management.” You know how it works. Leadership hires a consultant and together they decide what is best for the organization. They then seek to create “buy-in” by selling the solution to the organization. We thought we made an improvement by adding steering teams and design teams to help with the work. In the end, however, it was still the same—the few deciding for the many. Change management needed changing.

In the late 1980s, we began to realize that something was terribly wrong. The change management practices we were using took too long and did not sufficiently engage the organization. Meaningful change did not occur. We tinkered with this method for a while, adjusting first one aspect and then another, but to no avail. The time was right for a totally new approach.

A NEW MODEL OF CHANGE CHANGED EVERYTHING

In 1991, we developed the Conference Model, a radically new approach to organizational change. The Conference Model engaged large numbers of people in the redesign of organizational structures and processes in a series of conferences (two or three-day workshoplike events) and “walkthrus” (smaller sessions involving those not present at the conferences). The results were astounding. More people were engaged in the process. Accelerated implementation occurred. Organizations created a critical mass of people who cared about the outcomes. Capacity for future changes grew. Productivity and customer service levels rose.

We were not alone. Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisbord were perfecting Future Search. Kathy Dannemiller was inventing Whole Scale Change. Harrison Owen was experimenting with Open Space, and Robert Jacobs was creating Real Time Strategic Change. Many others were experimenting with new ways of getting “the whole system in the room.”

Our thinking has matured and developed since the early days of the Conference Model. In the beginning, we focused on getting the techniques right. Now our attention has shifted to the principles and practices behind not just the Conference Model but all large group processes.

We looked at our own work and the work of others and identified four principles we have in common. These methodologies all

• Widen the circle of involvement by including stakeholders from inside and outside the organization.

• Connect people to each other using a variety of dialogic methods and techniques.

• Create communities for action by creating forums for people to have a voice in change that impacts them.

• Promote fairness throughout the process.

Taken together, these principles and the leadership practices of honesty, transparency, and trust constitute what I am calling “the new change management”—a process that puts an end to the few deciding for the many; a process based on honesty, transparency, and trust. A proven process that creates increased employee engagement, which in turn increases customer service and productivity.

LIFE FORCED ME TO WALK MY TALK

In 1992, an event in my personal life reinforced everything I’d learned about change during the previous twenty-five years of consulting to businesses. I had emergency triple-bypass surgery and spent twenty days in the hospital because of surgical complications. Having your chest cracked open is a life-changing event, one I do not wish to repeat. As a result, I radically changed my lifestyle. I changed my diet. I added daily aerobic exercise and yoga to my life.

My engagement with this lifestyle change has ebbed and flowed. Sometimes, it feels effortless. Some days, I feel doubtful or even indifferent.

Nothing is more basic than changing the way you eat. Every meal becomes an exercise in decision making. Restaurant dining becomes an assertiveness test. What I have learned from this experience is that even when the stakes are high, even when one’s very life is at stake, engagement does not come easily. Observing my own engagement with these lifestyle changes has given me new insights, patience, and understanding about what it takes for meaningful change to take root.

You can decide to change in an instant, but more is required in order for change to take root. I remember the instant I decided to change my lifestyle as l lay in a hospital bed, tubes running in and out of my body, my postsurgical scars on display for the world to see. Deciding to change is a necessary first step. But lasting change requires persistence. It also requires acknowledgment, feedback, and support from others. You can’t get there alone.

NOW WE ALL HAVE A GREAT MODEL FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT

In 2000, the first edition of Terms of Engagement hit the bookstores. People began applying the principles and practices. The most gratifying result of authoring published material is to hear how people with whom we never worked successfully applied the ideas we put in print. For example, I received a call from Billie Alban and Barbara Bunker, authors of The Handbook of Larger Group Interventions. They said, “Hey, Dick, did you know that American Airlines used your principles to transform the company? We’re including the story in our book.” Silence on my end of the phone. “No,” I finally replied.

The American Airlines story, “Back from the Brink at American Airlines” (Bunker and Alban 2006, 86–96), cites the principles of Terms of Engagement as the basis for American Airlines’ active engagement process. This process “fostered significant changes in involvement, transparency, understanding, and collaboration, which, combined with process improvements, saved AA 1.8 billion dollars” (ibid., 85). These savings helped American Airlines effectively overcome pervasive low-cost competition and the devastating aftereffects of September 11, 2001.

A LOOK BACK AND A LOOK FORWARD

First edition readers of Terms of Engagement were able to apply its lessons on their own. My hope is that you will do so as well. I have included a “Questions for Reflection” section at the end of each chapter to encourage you and support your learning. The most heartwarming outcome of writing a book is to know people have taken your ideas and applied them. I look forward to getting one of those calls that starts with “You don’t know this, but . . . “

I’m very excited about this new edition of Terms of Engagement. In it, you will find the latest insights and practices for creating an engaged organization. It’s been a labor of love and a joy to write. Talking with the dozens of people I interviewed as background for this edition was a graduate education in itself. By the time I was finished, I had more than four hundred pages of transcripts from which I extracted key engagement practices and stories to drive the lessons home. Welcome to the conversation—and to the possibility of a truly engaged group of people where you work.