The trick
I wanted the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LVIII. I can’t support any Bay area team as a SoCal kid, and I’m a bit of a Swiftie. But what excites me isn’t that Kansas City won – it’s how the San Francisco 49ers lost. The Chiefs had OCM, the 49ers didn’t.
What’s OCM?
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is an approach to help organizations achieve transformation instead of check boxes. OCM is what steers people to accept and demonstrate change, instead of ignoring or resisting it and thus waste time, money, and opportunity. For example, spending millions to implement new software – it might “work” but are employees still ignoring it and using old manual methods instead? Or, if a sports league changed the rules to improve the overtime experience – do all the teams approach OT under new rules or by what they’re used to….
How did OCM help Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team win?
Tight end Travis Kelce (dating singer-songwriter Taylor Swift as of this article’s publication) and the rest of the Chiefs played great. But when the 49ers won the coin toss to begin overtime, they fatally chose to go on offense first because they lacked proper OCM. Yup, that’s the reason.
Going on offense first (and then scoring only 3 points) meant Kansas City could – and did – automatically win (when they scored 6 going second). Most agree, under new rules, you want to go on offense second so you know what you need to win. There is content ad nauseum on the sports strategy, but here’s a business view on how OCM gave the Chiefs the advantage.
Four heartbreaking lessons learned for the Niners
1. Get yourself a Fraz (staff an expert change lead)
A tale of two cities, from the Athletic. Kansas City wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling said “We’ve been going over [the rule change] since beginning of the year. We got a guy named Fraz, who does a great job with keeping us updated on all the rules, all the rule changes every year”. San Francisco defensive lineman Arik Armstead admitted, “I didn’t even know about the new playoff overtime rule. It was a surprise to me” – he found out from the overview displayed in-game on the stadium scoreboard, per ESPN. During your organization’s big moment, people need to know what’s going on and what to do about it. That won’t happen unless an experienced OCM practitioner takes point to recognize the changes and their implications and then leads a personalized change strategy and plan to ready the people impacted.
2. A leader’s “right” call without impacted stakeholder buy-in won’t cut it
It’s not that everyone in San Francisco was oblivious. Head coach Mike Shanahan did plan for overtime with the team’s analytics department and reached an arguably sound conclusion for offense first. But none of that permeated the team. Now, the behind-closed-doors discussion made the whole team look ignorant (if not negligent), and the players forsaken by their leaders. What do you think that did to trust, loyalty, and cooperation? How effective will leadership be in the future? It didn’t have to be a democratic decision. But impacted stakeholders need awareness plus alignment and should participate in addressing change instead of being blind-sided by it. Especially helpful here would have been use of a Change Network, a simultaneously formal and natural approach to two-way engagement, continuous improvement, and outcome versus process.
3. Training is more than “how-to”
Per ESPN, KC safety Justin Reid shared preparation to properly tackle the new rules formally began in pre-season training, and, per Fox Sports, defense tackle Chris Jones elaborated it intensified leading up to the game. In business, most project leaders know those impacted need training right before Go Live on how to engage with the change (i.e. fill out the form, operate the machine, use the software). Our lesson here is practicing how to play football is needed but complete training for the Super Bowl requires holistic and sticky education for everyone, covering context, role/responsibilities, and process, too. When preparing for business change, apply a phased learning program to educate stakeholders on all aspects of executing to win in future state over time allowing the knowledge to sink in and become ability.
4. Proper change communication cuts through noise, anything else is noise
There was actually a lot of buzz about the rule changes, notably because of a Chiefs game from 2021. But emblematically of the majority of the organization, NBC Sports reported Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk admitting, “I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime…I don’t totally know the strategy there. We hadn’t talked about it”. A key player with years of post-season experience under the new rule didn’t even know what was going on. From playwright George Bernard Shaw’s “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”, just because things are said about change – even with hype – doesn’t mean the right message gets to and is internalized by the required audience. When an organization initiates transformation, it needs proper attention to purposeful engagement, tightly addressing “what’s in it for me?” and “so what do you want me to do?” to drive the behavior shift that in turn enables the transformation. And it must be paired with pulse checks to validate the messaging is working as intended.
The post-game press conference
Rules constantly change. Whether you initiate yourself or external forces make you, whether you want to or not, change will come. The question is, how painful do you want the change journey to be? And especially when needed, how quickly do you want return on your investment in change? Playing in a Super Bowl is an accomplishment, period. But San Francisco spent millions to not win. If they employed proper OCM principles like Kansas City…who knows. And like the Niners’ fan base, your organization’s fanbase (it’s internal and external customers and shareholders) are watching. When change next comes, will they like what they see and continue to support you after?
Whether you’re an NFL team or a business leader, let’s chat on how OCM can save your organization pain and money while accelerating the time to your ROI for your next change.