The Blue Room - A Change Management Story on the Role of Effective Change Leader

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Yosi Kossowsky, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

I have a question for you: Why would it take three weeks for a team to paint a room blue? How does this apply to almost all teams in all projects?

It’s a common problem – organizational change is challenging. After years of experience in leading change programs and working closely with senior leaders, I’ve learned there are a number of straightforward techniques that can be effective for leading complex change initiatives.

An effective change leader is one who considers, clearly transmits, and continuously ensures that the key details of the change – why the change is happening, what is changing, and by when the change is needed – are understood by the people who will be implementing or affected by the change. A common contributor to the failure of change initiatives is when leaders do not fully embrace the role of a change leader.

See if you can relate to the parable of the Blue Room Effect:

A director walks into a meeting and instructs his team: “We need to paint the conference room blue.”

One of the team leaders says, “Okay, sure. We’ll get that done for you.”

Following the meeting, the team leader assigns a project manager to create a time- and cost-estimate plan for painting the conference room blue.

The project manager takes a week to pull together a team to survey the room and scope the project. When they get to the room, someone in the team asks, “What exactly are we painting blue? The walls, the chairs, the table?”

Another team member asks, “What shade of blue?”

The third team member wonders, “Why? Why are we painting the room blue?”

The project manager responds with a curious look, “Hmm, I don’t actually know, but I’ll go find out.”

She then emails her team leader the list of questions.

The leader reads the email and realizes he doesn’t know the answers.

Recognizing that it’s been a week since he first received the assignment, and feeling uncomfortable, he delays a day or so before emailing the director with these questions.

When the director – whose inbox is overflowing with emails – receives the message and sees that it’s longer than a single line, he marks the message to be read later.

When he finally returns to the message, some days later, and reads the first line – “What shade of blue?” – he is dumbfounded. He assumed the project had already been completed. As he continues to read, he starts to feel frustrated, saying to himself, “I asked them to do this weeks ago; why have they waited so long?”

He sends an irritated reply that any shade of blue is fine, and that this needed to be done yesterday.

The team leader doesn’t know what to do with the reply, as two more important questions are still outstanding. At the next meeting with his director, after taking the heat for the incomplete project, he gets the needed details and forwards them to the project manager, along with a directive to get it done ASAP.

The project manager, who has already picked up additional projects in the meantime, takes a few days to provide the time- and cost-estimates to her manager.

Finally, three weeks and many wasted works hours later, the project is complete – the conference room is painted blue. But the teams don’t feel a sense of achievement or accomplishment, and because the blue-room project impacted delivery on their other projects, they feel overworked and unappreciated.

I see some version of this scenario taking place with disquieting regularity.

Ideally, in this simplistic parable, when first assigning the task, the director would consider and clearly transmit the key details of the change. Barring that, there was opportunity for the team leader to immediately ask for clarification.

In reality, most change programs are more complex than the Blue Room Effect.

Not only must leaders explain a meaningful what, why and by when, they also have the responsibility of ensuring that their teams understand the directives. In addition, change leaders actively model the change, provide ongoing support and communication, and most importantly, relate to their teams as people rather than resources.

Almost every leader I have worked with inherently understands how important it is to bring their people along on the change journey, yet the disconnect continues.

So, what is the secret of successful change leaders? They have a common mindset about their role as leaders: they understand that successful change is achieved through clarity, teamwork and collaboration.

When we think of the role leaders play, several words come to mind; visionary, strategic, bold, proactive. Though these descriptors may be true, change leaders also recognize the importance of addressing the emotional needs of their teams.

In so doing, a human connection is created, building the foundation for trust and a mutually beneficial relationship.

Revisiting the Blue Room scenario with this in mind, what if, upfront, the director had explained he wanted the conference room walls painted blue because Acme BluCorp was coming in for a big meeting on Tuesday? A room in their corporate color would indicate dedication and commitment to their agenda, thus improving the chances of the deal being signed. What if he had acknowledged and addressed the concerns of his people about the extra workload, or elicited suggestions about how to most effectively handle the disruption to their environment and workspace?

What if all change leadership was handled with this clarity, vision and understanding of the needs, motivations and dynamics of the team?

Which type of leader are you?