Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny

Ginger Graham, the CEO of the medical devices company Guidant, learned this in a crisis. After the company introduced a new cardiovascular stent, sales went through the roof. Graham described this scenario in her April 2002 article for the Harvard Business Review titled, “If You Want Honesty, Break Some Rules.” Almost overnight, good news turned into bad news as demand for the stent far outstretched supply. And all this hit as the holidays were approaching. Executives figured that just meeting demand until new sources of production could come online would require three-shift workdays and seven-day workweeks. Graham could have simply mandated the work and required people to fill their obligations, but she knew that wouldn’t work. Not only was it unfair to the employees to force this family-unfriendly schedule on them when they deserved time off, but it would also provoke resentment and just might hurt productivity. So instead, Graham asked for help. At an all-company meeting, she praised the work that had brought about the wonderful success. She shared the sales data. She read success stories from doctors who were using the stent to avoid bypass surgery and save patients’ lives. She then extrapolated the sales data and showed how many unmet needs would result if supply couldn’t be stepped up substantially. And then she made a request: “We have the chance to do something [for patients and for ourselves] that no company has ever done in the history of our industry. We have an...