The Moses Model: Leading Organizational Change
My client was in a new job and a newly created job. The first-ever National Sales Director and in charge of creating a sales culture. “Just exactly how do I do that?” he asked me. I replied, “Use the Moses Model.”
The long-told story of Moses is a vivid analogy of how to lead a significant organizational change. There are ten elements in the Moses Model. Depending on your organization, you may use some or all of these elements as you move through the different phases of change.
Readiness to Change
Display a compelling vision. Moses inspired the Hebrews by telling them about the land of milk and honey, a place where they would have sustenance and freedom.
Show that there is a Worthy Purpose — in the company and in each job. As the leader, communicate a vivid picture of what the future holds and the strategy to get there. Tell a compelling story about the future that engages people’s minds and hearts.
Make the current situation unpleasant. The story starts with the Hebrews in captivity. The Pharaoh had no reason to change, to let them free. To get the Pharaoh to change his mind, Moses made the current situation unpleasant. Locusts. Boils. Lice. Darkness. Death of the firstborn. Pharaoh finally changed his mind.
OK, you’re not going to be that drastic. If your organization resists change, you may need to make it uncomfortable to stay with the status quo. What will move people to change? Show them what it’s like today and what would happen they did change – increased market share, more sales, more innovation, more joy in working as a team.
Make it impossible to go back. Once the Hebrews crossed the parted waters of the Red Sea, the sea filled up again. There was no going back.
Some people think that if they wait long enough, leadership will cave in. Be firm and consistent in your messages and actions. Keep moving forward. Demonstrate your resolve to stay the course for the long-term even through there may be some uncomfortable bumps in the road.
Directing the Change
Model the change. Moses participated in the journey. He walked along with the people.
As the change leader, you have to demonstrate how the change will affect people. In one organization, the leaders gave their executive washroom to employees to show that there would be more bottom-up participation. You need to take the first step, perhaps a symbolic one, which shows that you embrace the change.
Form a team. Moses called his followers the “chosen people.” He made them feel like a special group who were going together toward the Promised Land.
Create your own team of change champions. Give them prominence as advocates for change. Let them model the way to their peers. Make them the leaders of cross-functional teams who plan and implement the change.
Have simple rules to live by. Moses gave the people Ten Commandments. Provide simple guidelines for what you want people to do. Make it easy to understand expectations by making them explicit and short.
Have consequences for breaking the rules. When the people worshiped the false god of the golden calf, Moses punished them. Hopefully, your people will not backslide or slip from the guidelines. When they do, do not look the other way. Make sure that you counsel people on the right course of action. Your constructive remarks will put them back on the right path.
Have a map or path to follow. This is one change principle that Moses did not follow. He did not have a map of the wilderness. Therefore, he had to wander for forty years.
It won’t take you forty years to reach your destination. But you may be able to reach your destination with less time and more certainty if you plan the steps that you will take. It’s not enough to point out the direction of change. You need to chart the ways in which you will crate your change and not chaos.
Maintaining the Momentum
Sustain people along the way. Moses provided the people with manna that fed them throughout their journey. During your change, sustain your employees with information, involvement, and active engagement in decision-making and implementation.
Take the time to make permanent change. It took forty years — two generations. By the time people reached the Promised Land, they really didn’t know any other way of living. This change was fixed and ingrained into their culture.
It will take time to reach your destination. Readiness to change. Directing the change. Maintaining the momentum. You will get there if you don’t give in.
How did my client follow the Moses Model? He provided a vision of a sales culture, one with more cross-selling and higher margin sales. He had to convince the middle managers that this was worth doing by showing them the business case — the costs of losing customers is much higher than retaining and selling more to current customers. He created a group of early adopters who became his Sales Champions and made them a team with weekly sales meetings. He posted sales results and celebrated them with spiffs and perks. His vision for top sales was a Day at the Beach – a trip to Pebble Beach – with slowly increasing numbers of winners.
I provided training, performance monitoring, and skills testing to ensure that skills were learned, monitored, and maintained. There were rewards for winners; consequences for the losers. Supervisors taught their own employees so that they could model the skills and show them how to use them.
It took over three years to get a sales culture. It was well-worth the effort. Every benchmark was reached: more customer retention, sales of higher margin services, more employee skills and satisfaction. My client did follow the Moses Model.