The State of Engagement™: Saboteurs
You may think you have many Saboteurs in your organisation – after all, seeing survey responses tends to highlight the negative more than the positive.
I don’t like this. I might not be able to stop it, but I’m going to make sure everyone knows this is a bad idea.
When change arrives, how we react can have a big impact on its success (or otherwise). Saboteurs understand the detail of what’s happening, but for all sorts of reasons, aren’t excited by it. It could be that they perceive the change as a threat to their current circumstances. And perhaps, they occupy positions of influence that can be damaging to its adoption.
You might think you have lots of Saboteurs in your business – after all, seeing survey responses tends to highlight the negative more than the positive. But in our experience, the number of Saboteurs you actually have is likely to be very small, typically no more than 1% of all employees. A vocal, but tiny, proportion of the total employee base but in the long term, not really a sustainable position.
What can you do about them? That all depends on where they sit in the business. If they’re in a senior role that can influence the success or failure of the change activity, targeting them with a detailed, tailored communications plan is crucial.
