University Business - July 2008 - (Page 24)

VIEWPOINT Coordinating the schedules of the various players will take enough time that several meetings will be necessary to make sure all the “key players” are able to be involved in the discussion. Eventually, you’ll need to start the meeting all over because of the modiﬁcations to the original proposal, but ﬁrst the agent of change will have to “rework the proposal, ensuring that the concerns have adequately been addressed.” 4. Lose the proposal (“Don’t remember it,” “Didn’t get that e-mail,” “There was no attachment,” “Are you sure you sent it to me?”). Suﬃcient to gain breathing space while formulating a more terminal strategy, this tactic provides breathing space to select and implement one of the more permanent tactics. (A word of caution when selecting this strategy: The agent of change may be more technologically adept than you are and be able to use email tools such as requesting the system to notify the person when the e-mail is received by you or opened and read.) Eventually, the agent of change will be sharp enough to hand deliver a printed copy of the proposal, at which time you will demur and remind her that “I really need it in electronic form so I can e-mail it to …” As a beginning tactic, this is an excellent tool, as it readily lends itself to being stage one of a series of multiple sequential endiscouragement strategies. 5. No money in the budget. A perennial favorite, this strategy allows you to be fully supportive while adeptly shuﬄing the blame to the bean counters. It permits immediate disapproval while holding out the carrot of potential adoption after the next budget cycle (“This is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, there’s no money available this ﬁscal year, but I really think you should develop a budget request for funding that I can present during the next budget development cycle. Once we get it funded in the budget …”). If carefully done, the budget impact statement becomes the ﬁrst of a series of proposals that can be handled with diﬀerent endiscouragement strategies until the agent of change’s attention can be channeled elsewhere. 6. “Have you talked to … about it?” While similar to rules 2 and 3, this rule is more nefarious in that you have appointed the agent of change the instrument of her own endiscouragement. The agent of change will wander from one overworked, disinterested employee to another as each key person refers her to someone else who needs to be “in the loop before I can help you.” Eventually the agent of change will be locked into a self-instigated merry-goround of eternal meetings. Best of all, she The agent of change is locked into a self-instigated merry-go-round of eternal meetings. will be so busy trying to deal with all the meetings for her proposal that you will be able to call her to task for not being attentive to her job. 7. “We don’t, haven’t, won’t, can’t ” In its ﬂexibility and ubiquitousness, this is a truly Machiavellian strategy. One can add virtually any noun (time, funding, permission, infrastructure, etc.) or verb (allow, permit, condone, etc.) in an inﬁnite variety of demurrers. Once the agent of change has rewritten the proposal to accommodate the negative aspect, you roll out a new variant that requires the agent of change to address a diﬀerent concern. Another potential inherent in this strategy is its ability to rapidly morph into a seemingly new concern (“I haven’t heard of any reason that would preclude adoption of this proposal, but the VP of Radicalization hasn’t …”). Tactics such as this quickly mire the agent of change into dealing with multiple endiscouragement strategies at the same time. 8. “Sounds exciting, but I’ll need more details.” This should be considered a begin- ning tactic. Once you have roped the agent of change into researching and responding to one omitted detail, it will, naturally, lead you to more and more omitted elements of the proposal that need further attention and that will lead naturally into other strategies (“Sounds exciting, but I’ll need more details about appropriate policies and what other organizations are doing with this issue.”) The agent of change will have been neatly diverted into strategy 6 due to the need to ﬁnd out who is doing what, where, and how. 9. “Yes, but …” This strategy is essentially one of perseverance—doggedly continuing to object for any reason. The protestation can be either rational (“Yes, but it does not correlate to our approved outcomes”) or irrational (“Yes, but no one will like it”). The success of “Yes, but …” relies on interminable opposition, which may or may not have any relationship to the proposal, may or may not make sense, and may or may not be appropriate. The objections must be a source of frustration to the agent of change, wearing her down to the point the person becomes so vexed that she abandons the proposal. 10. Quote Nancy Reagan and “ just say no.” Designed only for those permanently ensconced in their position and those who are absolutely sure of their power, this is a straightforward, simple, one-step strategy that crushes any hope for change in a single step. The agent of change submits her proposal, you say no, and the matter is ended. This strategy doubles as a great time saver in that it quashes further debate and discourages other agent of change wannabes. The downside is that it deprives you of the amusement of forcing the everhopeful agent of change to jump though hoops on the way to no. In short, stiﬂing and discouraging change is not diﬃcult. A successful culture of no is the result of studious avoidance of innovation, the careful frustration of initiative, and the obfuscation inherent in any eﬀective bureaucracy. 24 | July 2008 universitybusiness.com http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - July 2008

University Business - July 2008
Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Financial Aid
Human Resources
Students in Need, Schools at the Ready
Security Officers Speak Out
Advancement Goes Digital
A New Day for NASFAA
Sustainable Admissions
What's New
End Note

University Business - July 2008