Tipping Point Leadership

It is never easy to execute a strategic shift, and doing it fast with limited resources is even more difficult. Yet our research suggests that it can be achieved by leveraging tipping point leadership. By consciously addressing the hurdles to strategy execution and focusing on factors of disproportionate influence, you too can knock them over to actualize a strategic shift.

…building a culture of trust, commitment, and voluntary cooperation in its execution, as well as support for the leader…

Focus on three factors of disproportionate influence in motivating employees, what we call kingpins, fishbowl management, and atomization.

• Zoom in on Kingpins—concentrate your efforts on kingpins, the key influencers in the organization; natural leaders, who are well respected and persuasive, or who have an ability to unlock or block access to key resources;
• Place Kingpins in a Fishbowl to greatly raise the stakes of inaction—shine a spotlight on their actions in a repeated and highly visible way. Light is shined on who is lagging behind, and a fair stage is set for rapid change agents to shine. For fishbowl management to work it must be based on transparency, inclusion, and fair process.
• Atomize to Get the Organization to Change Itself—Atomization relates to the framing of the strategic challenge. Unless people believe that the strategic challenge is attainable, the change is not likely to succeed. Break it into bite-size atoms that officers at different levels can relate to. Atomize the issue to make it actionable to all levels.

To overcome political forces, tipping point leaders focus on three disproportionate influence factors: leveraging angels, silencing devils, and getting a consigliere on their top management team. Angels are those who have the most to gain from the strategic shift (Who will naturally align with me?). Devils are those who have the most to lose from it (Who will fight me?). And a consigliere is a politically adept but highly respected insider who knows in advance all the land mines, including who will fight you and who will support you.