Mastering the Political Chessboard

Don’t Underestimate the Opening for Change. Our masterful coaching certification program is about coaching CEOs and other top executives and is based on 12 conversations. Arguably the two most important conversations are 1) Declare an Impossible Future, and 2) Master the Political Chessboard.

Trying to realize an Impossible Future implies radical change, which is threatening to people who have an established power base. Thus, mastering the political chessboard is essential if you want to generate more support than opposition One of the key factors in doing so is “gauging the existing readiness for change.”

A I said in our Masterful Coaching Certification class last week, great politicians, like Abraham Lincoln and FDR never compromised their Impossible Future, but were very careful not to “overreach” in pushing through programs that went beyond the existing readiness.

FDR had a vision of an economic bill of rights for all Americans and wanted to push through a National Medicare program along with Social Security, but felt this would get him labeled as a socialist and invoke strong opposition. He tore this out of this legislative agenda at the last minute, because he didn’t want to go further than the existing readiness for change.

President Obama who campaigned on the banner of “Change We Can Believe In” was able to bring about significant change after being elected with a large majority such as the banking reform bill. However, he seems to have over reached with “Obama Care”, and as a result, paid a heavy penalty, losing the midterm elections and Democratic control of Congress.

Interestingly enough, the issue I have found with most executives in business and governments is not that they “over reach” but rather than they under reach. That is to say they underestimate the existing readiness for change. They are so afraid of getting their vote with the boss or “the people” cancelled that they often overlook opportunities to make a difference.

Think about it, a year or so ago most people in politics would have assumed that there was absolutely no “existing readiness” for overturning the Mubarak Regime in Egypt. Yet in fact there was much more “existing readiness” and an opening for radical change than anyone would have thought.

The Egyptian revolution seemed to come out of nowhere. Mubarak’s resignation was unexpected enough, but the fact that he has now been detained for corruption and war crimes would have been unimaginable only a short time ago.

The moral of the story: if you are a leader, manager, or even a consultant, don’t over-estimate the opening for change that you have in front of you and don’t under-estimate it either.