INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
New England Chapter

Memo from the Prez

The Fall of "Us vs. Them"

At IMC, radical reformation (really! truly!) may be upon us. One recent day in Chicago (May 2, 2003) just may go down in the annals of our history as "the day that changed it all." On that date, our internal Berlin Wall came tumbling down, with IMC’s mission, governance, assumptions etc. suddenly under aggressive scrutiny. Even IMC’s more conservative leaders had to admit that, bottom line, transformation was the prescription called for.

For me the day started when I sat quietly in the back of the IMC National Board of Directors meeting and tolerated a few minutes of all-too-usual boring blather that passes for action and decisiveness at many such sessions. Nice things to do were suggested, a white paper to write, a new committee to chair and get started. Yadda yadda.

Then, like a firestorm, New England's Alan Weiss, a sitting member of the National Board, began thundering away at the 16 or so other Board reps around the table about the waste of time this all was. Stressing the urgency of getting something effective going to raise membership levels NOW, he insisted the National Board was failing. Focusing on anything else amounted to worthless "distraction."

As I sat there, it didn't look like he was getting anywhere. The response was vacant, laconic. So many around the table seemed to offer so little spark and imagination, Alan's battle was decidedly uphill.

I had to leave then to attend the "chapter presidents council" meeting. In my three years as president of IMCNE, I had never attended one of these as I had been afraid I’d get sucked in by the same sort of National "distractions" Alan had been railing about. Our chapter was healthy and stable now, however, so I felt I could take the chance.

I chose to go slow, get the lay of the land. How close would these other chapter presidents’ ties be to the same mentality as I had just observed on the National Board? Did any of them feel, as I did, that IMC National should substantially boost financial support (and other categories) of its chapters and its individual members? Were any of them frustrated as we have been in New England by the sense that IMC National lacked relevance to us?

But the moment I stepped into the room, my colleagues’ frustration and resentment was palpable. The "us vs. them" attitude so pervasive here in New England apparently prevailed at other chapters as well. Needs and goals of IMC chapter presidents rarely synched with the priorities of those National reps in the other room.

When I encountered this, I couldn’t help myself! Before the meeting even started, I let loose with a diatribe about how IMC needed to switch its organizational model from top-down to grassroots-up, that chapters deserved MUCH more financial support from National than they were getting, that National needed to begin emphasizing its most naturally attractive value points and stop blinding us with so many, ah, "distractions."

My new colleagues jumped right there with me. Atlanta, Dallas, Northern California, Chicago and others all echoed my complaints. Airing them gave us permission to go the next step and get rebellious. Within the first half-hour, we made a pact to join forces and to storm the barricades.

The battle was scheduled for after lunch. A joint session of the National Board and chapter presidents had been planned, so we decided to petition (nay, DEMAND!) that a joint retreat be held in July of both Board and presidents in which we would altogether, as equals, re-visit IMC’s mission, purpose, value proposition etc. It seemed a fair, common sense (Hello, Thomas Paine!) proposal but with "us vs. them" in effect, we did wonder how we might get "them" to accept such subversive folly.

Throughout the morning, however, unbeknownst to us, Alan Weiss had continued pounding away at his Board colleagues, serendipitously along much the same lines. Thus, by the time the joint session convened, it had been determined by National that Alan would facilitate the process we chapter presidents had planned to propose. Rather than waiting for July, we began examining value points and governance issues right then and there. To me, this was like April 9 in the heart of Baghdad: no resistance, no Royal Guard, just convoys straight into the city square, statues toppling like Legos, and the beginnings of a new order!

By 4 PM that day, we had walls lined with new ideas and a joint decision scheduled to continue it all on July 10 and 11, again in Chicago. Most importantly, a new governance process began taking shape: we chapter presidents deliberating at the same table with National Board reps, as equals. Alan’s outstanding facilitation leadership kept distraction points from creeping in so that real progress could be made. I could hear Joan Baez’ words at Woodstock ringing in my ear: "It’s a new dawn, baby."

Of course, I realize anything can still happen, that our revolution isn’t completed yet. But it will be hard to go back to the way things have been. We chapter leaders have tasted new fruit! Why, it was even decided that the original plan of having a National Board meeting on July 11 would be set aside in favor of continuing this new process, and that suggestion was made by a long-time member of the National Board! So if any event has the potential of obliterating IMC’s traditional "us vs. them" dynamic, it was this one on May 2 in Chicago.

Meanwhile, back in New England, I would love to have YOU involved in all this history-in-the-making. Every summer IMCNE conducts a retreat in which the IMCNE Board, "Board Associate" volunteers and any other IMC member and affiliate who wishes to participate, all come together as equals to re-evaluate how we should proceed for the coming year, and what kind of organization we should be. Owing to these new National developments, our decisions this year could significantly impact the "new IMC." For each of us personally, this means insuring that this association genuinely works to enable us to advance our individual consulting practices and ourselves even in the face of current rough-tough economic times.

Upheaval at IMC National equals exciting opportunities for us individually, for our chapter and for consulting as a profession. Now is NOT the time to sit on the sidelines and wait. Now is time for all good women and men to take up arms, fight the good fight and make history happen!

Ken Lizotte CMC
President

NOTES:

• To become a member of our Board Associates, me directly.

• Also me if you would like a copy of notes taken at the historic joint session described above.