Kim and Mauborgne: Tipping Point Leadership

Kim and Mauborgne argue that conventional change leaders attempt to overcome these hurdles by transforming their entire organization at once. Yet this can be expensive and time consuming. [2]

Tipping point leaders transform their organization by focusing their efforts on an influential minority, to achieve lasting change quickly and at low cost. They do this by:

1. making unarguable calls for change
2. concentrating their resources where they will have the greatest impact
3. securing the commitment of key influencers
4. silencing the most vocal naysayers

Kim and Mauborgne liken this process to ten-pin bowling, where hitting the kingpin just right will knock over the remaining nine pins.

In practice, this can be achieved by following the steps outlined below.

1. Wake up Your Organization to the Need For Radical Change

One of the biggest challenges many leaders face is the belief among their top managers that change is unnecessary. As people become used to the day-to-day routine, it can be difficult for them to recognize that there is a problem.

Many leaders attempt to tackle this by referring to the numbers. This could be sales, costs, retention statistics, or any other part of the organization that can be quantified. Yet, to the managers, this information can be difficult to grasp.

As Kim and Maubornge point out: “Those whose units are doing well feel that criticism is not directed at them… [while] managers of poorly performing units feel that they have been put on notice… and are more likely to be scanning the job market.” [3]

With tipping point leadership, the change leader goes out of their way to experience the organizations problems. They try to sell where sales are poor, or speak to customers where complaints are high. Then they have their managers do the same.T

his is a fairly radical approach and managers may need support during the experience, but the objective at this stage is not to apportion blame. Instead, it is to have every top-level manager come face-to-face with the organization’s problems so that they can work together to solve them.

By the end of this phase, leaders will have “broken through the cognitive hurdle” and support for change will have begun to spread throughout the organization.

2. Allocate Resources Where They Will Be Most Effective

Once the need for change has been recognized, discussion frequently moves on to how it will be paid for. But with limited resources, many change leaders feel that they have to limit the scale of their changes or lobby for further investment from banks and shareholders.

Kim and Mauborgne argue that neither option is necessary.

With tipping point leadership, they advocate taking time to identify:

• cold spots: activities that consume a great number of resources but have little impact on performance
• hot spots: activities that have a great impact on performance but are resource-starved

The leader can then reallocate resources to ensure that they are used where they will be most effective.

To an extent, this can be done by looking at the numbers. If there are areas of an organization that cost a great deal, but perform poorly, then it may be necessary to reallocate resources. For example, if a sales team spends half their day on paperwork, it might be a good idea to delegate that work to an assistant so that the team can spend more time with prospective clients.

In this example, the efforts of the sales team are concentrated where they will be most effective, and the change leader’s ability to achieve results can build support for more radical changes later on.

Of course, it is important that the leader considers the likely consequences of any reallocation. Opposition to a change can be high if it seems like it will have a negative effect. To counter this, it can help to trial new ideas on a small scale, to build support and enthusiasm, before rolling them out to the wider organization.

In this way, leaders can “sidestep the resource hurdle” to maximize the impact of what they already have.

3. Motivate Key Influencers

Once the need to change has been recognized, and resources have been allocated where they will be most effective, the positive impact of the leader’s efforts should start to become apparent. However, for transformational change to be achieved, employees from throughout the organization must be motivated to get involved.

Kim and Mauborgne point out that this is tremendously difficult for any one leader to achieve on their own because different people are motivated by different incentives.

However, they argue that the key to motivating an organization as a whole is to focus on the ‘kingpins’. These are individuals from throughout the organization who exert widespread influence because they:

• are persuasive and respected
• are connected
• control access to resources

If the leader can ensure that these kingpins are motivated by change, they can count on them to spread enthusiasm throughout the rest of the organization.

Some kingpins are easy to identify: they are the top level managers who oversee great numbers of employees. Others may exist outside of the traditional management hierarchy, but are influential because of their expertise or because they have been in the organization for a long time. If a leader frequently hears the same name being mentioned, it is likely that this person is a kingpin.

A performance culture can then be encouraged by putting the kingpins in what the authors refer to as a ‘fishbowl’. [4] This is a regular meeting where kingpins share the lessons that led to high performance and explain the reasons behind poor performance.

This approach fosters a culture of trust and transparency because results and responsibilities are clear to everyone.

It also gives the leader then opportunity to exercise ‘fair process’, whereby the fishbowl meetings result in: [5]

1. engagement – individuals have input into the strategic decisions that affect them
2. explanation – individuals understand the reasons that strategic decisions were made
3. expectation clarity – individuals know what is expected of them and how success will be measured

Ultimately, the kingpins are deeply invested in the change process because they have contributed to its formation and set the standards by which they will be judged. In so doing, each kingpin becomes responsible for generating enthusiasm within their own sphere of influence. [6]

4. Overcome Resistance to Change

During any change process there is likely to be some resistance, both internally and externally from people that Kim and Mauborgne refer to as ‘devils’. [7] People resist change for a range of reasons, including loss of status, decreased resources or increased pressure to perform.

Kim and Mauborgne write that the change leader can work to overcome resistance in three key ways:

Recruit a ‘Consigliere’

The term ‘consigliere’ became famous for its inclusion in the 1972 film The Godfather, but is used by Kim and Mauborgne to describe ‘a respected insider’. [8] This is someone who has been in the organization for a long time and understands how different people will react to change. A leader who recruits a consigliere to their inner circle, at an early stage in their change efforts, can use them to identify people who will offer support, as well as those who will resist change. Action can then be taken to silence the naysayers, by persuading them, changing their remit or ultimately removing them from a position where they can block change.

Prepare Indisputable Facts

A more common technique to overcome resistance is to prepare indisputable facts that can counter any argument. For example, a consigliere might point out that the organization’s Head of Marketing will oppose a reduction in budget. However, knowing that in advance, the leader can review the department’s budget and when challenged can point out where investment has failed to provide a return.

Form a Coalition of ‘Angels’

Finally, where opposition is particularly strong, the leader can overcome resistance to change by forming a powerful coalition of ‘angels’. These are kingpins who support change, usually because they stand to gain from it, and may operate inside or outside the organization. For example, assume that the Head of Sales – a devil – objects to a switch from business travel to teleconferencing. If the Heads of the organization’s IT and Product Development departments – angels – can argue their case with indisputable facts then the naysayer is likely to be silenced.

By using a combination of these three methods to overcome naysayers, the leader can 'knock down the political hurdle'; and complete the transformation of the organization.

Criticisms

Tipping point leadership is a core part of Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy, a book that has come under fire for describing change rather than guiding it. [9]

That is to say, William Bratton did not transform the New York Police Department by referring to tipping point leadership. He transformed it in his own way, and the model was then used to describe his actions with the benefit of hindsight.

There is also some concern that Bratton received credit for results that had little to do with his changes. Economists John J. Donohue and Steven Levitt have argued that as much as 50% of the drop in crime during the 1990s can be attributed to the demographic changes. [10]

While not a criticism of tipping point leadership directly, this does call into question Kim and Mauborgne’s original methodology.

Conclusion

Despite these criticisms, Kim and Mauborgne’s tipping point leadership remains a popular roadmap for change that contains a number of lessons for any leader looking to transform their organization. In its simplest form, the method makes the most of available resources while leveraging an organization’s kingpins to silence naysayers. This is a fairly radical approach and is unlikely to be easy but, as leaders like Bratton have shown, it can be achieved in a consistent and formulaic way.