Samuel B. Bacharach - Keep Them On Your Side: Leading And Managing for Momentum

From the President of the United States to a president of a small company to the president of the local garden club, this book is not only a must read, it is a must use.

Ruben Jose King-Shaw, Jr.
Chairman & CEO of Mansa Equity Partners,
Former COO and Deputy Administrator of the
Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services,
and Advisor to President George W. Bush
and Florida Governor Jeb Bush

In Get Them on Your Side, Sam Bacharach told us how to get people to rally around an idea. In Keep Them on Your Side, hes telling us how to manage for momentum, that is, how to make things happen. These two books have a wealth of knowledge, based on the experience of a first-rate academic mind. Bacharach has an unusual talent for translating ideas into the world of practitioners and for bringing the experiences of practitioners into the world of ideas.

Edward J. Lawler
Martin P. Catherwood Professor
ILR Department of Organizational Behavior
Cornell University

Bacharachs two books, Get Them on Your Side and now Keep Them on Your Side, are together the best works I have read on leadership. If you want to know how to put your ideas in place and manage for success, these are the books you need.

Tony Panos
President
Performance Training Inc.

Organizations are littered with great ideas that never see the light of day because their sponsors were unable to navigate the realities associated with managing change. Keep Them on Your Side offers a pragmatic how-to for achieving success as skillful leaders move from concept to action.

Dave Pace
Executive Vice President, Partner Resources
Starbucks Coffee Company

Sam Bacharach is a master of the ins and outs of organizational leadership. His books, Get Them on Your Side and now Keep Them on Your Side, provide a roadmap for those who wish to get ahead in any organizational setting.

Steve Cassidy
President, Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York

LEADING AND
MANAGING FOR MOMENTUM

KEEP
THEM
ON YOUR
SIDE

SAMUEL B . BACHARACH

Director of Cornell Universitys Institute for Workplace Studies
and author of Get Them on Your Side

Copyright 2006, Samuel B. Bacharach.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any
form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief
excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by
Platinum Press, an imprint of Adams Media,
an F+W Publications Company
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

Platinum Press is a trademark of F+W Publications, Inc.

ISBN 10: 1-59337-729-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-59337-729-8
eISBN: 978-1-44051-750-1

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bacharach, Samuel B.
Keep them on your side / By Samuel B. Bacharach.
p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59337-729-8
ISBN-10: 1-59337-729-0
1. Organizational behavior. 2. Employee motivation. 3. Leadership.
4. Management. I. Title.
HD58.7.B3417 2005
658.4'092dc22
2006019984

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their product are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

The characters and examples are used to illustrate the theoretical framework presented in this volume. With the exception of the occasional reference to public figures, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales, is entirely coincidental. Most illustrations, although distilled from experience, are fictional.

This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-872-5627.

Contents

Chapter 1 | Youve Got Them on Your Side
But Will They Go the Distance?

Chapter 2 | Demystifying
Momentum

Chapter 3 | Balancing Leadership
for Momentum

Chapter 4 | Structural Momentum:
Maintain Resources and Capacity

Chapter 5 | Performance Momentum:
Monitor and Make Adjustments

Chapter 6 | Cultural Momentum:
Motivate to Sustain Focus

Chapter 7 | Political Momentum:
Mobilize Support and Anticipate Opposition

Chapter 8 | The Proactive Leader:
Get Them and Keep Them on Your Side

DEDICATION

For Ben and Yael... *
You are my momentum

* Names appear in alphabetical order.
Both made equal contributions to my happiness.

Acknowledgments

T he subject of this book is sustaining momentum and keeping people on your side. You have an idea. You want to fulfill it. To do so, you gather people around you and hope that theyll help you finish what you started. Because theyre friends, they agree to come along for the ride and help. They form the type of supportive coalition that goes the distance. But, several months into the writing, when things arent quite going well, when you dont know what to write, when the weather is lousy, you become bored, exhausted, and figure its not worth the effort. Acquaintances and colleagues are sympathetic and tell you to put the project away and pick it up next semester or next year. Your friends are less sympathetic and tell you, Get your act together and get this show on the road. Thats the difference between friends and colleagues. Friends tell you the truth and go the distance with you, even when the project seems impossible. I have been blessed in this project by a wonderful group of talented, smart, and decent friends.

First, I would be remiss if I did not thank my undergraduate students at Cornell. Throughout the years they have taught me much. ILR (Cornells School of Industrial and Labor Relations) undergraduates generally represent the best: smart, capable, and willing to be challenged. Im especially grateful to all the students in my New York City internship program. Discussions with this small group of wonderful people have greatly enhanced this project. For the last eight years Ive also been influenced by a great group of adult students at Ben Gurion University, where once or twice a year I retreat for a week or two to discuss my ideas with young practitioners. If they think they learned from me, great, but I have learned from them.

Ed Knappman and Jill Alexander believed in this project from the start. Ed has been wonderfully supportive of my writing in the last two years. Jill stuck her neck out, knowing that the rhythms and idiosyncrasies may make chaotic schedules and delayed deadlines. During the last phase of this project Kelly Lee Patterson, who just as I tired of getting examples, reminded me of some basics, like Mary Kay. My colleagues at the ILR School at Cornell University have always treated me with kindness and support. For over thirty years theyve provided me with a home. In my effort to cross over from the world of elegant theory to the world of practical talk, Gary Fields, Harry Katz, David Lipsky, and Robert Smith were especially supportive. Stuart Basefsky, the genius of information gathering and an intellectual detective with an electronic magnifying glass, has been of help in immeasurable ways. Tony Panos and Tom Willett always made me think I had something to say to practitioners and acted as a sounding board for ideas. Gal Oron, Ilan Shapira, Joe Miccio, and Steve Cassidymen who stand on the frontlinetaught me more about workplace culture than any textbook. Stacia Murphy, a friend and a role model for twenty years, helped keep much of this in perspective. Stacia has always been there when I needed honest dialogue. Sara Edwards, who kept the graduate program in New York moving, showed the type of success and entrepreneurial effort that made the institutes I run look good, giving me time to play around with ideas. Sara brings to everything we do the shadow of perfection, intellectual ideals, and quality. Her voice has helped me stay on track. Adele Smithers-Fornaci and Christopher Smithers were, as always, in my corner. The Smithers family relationship with the Bacharach family means a lot to me.