Managing Change

Years ago I was part of a management “take over” of a casino. This casino has since been sold and I’m sorry to read that it is now going into foreclosure but back in the early nineties it was owned by Merv Griffin, the talk show host and producer of game shows. He had hired the president of the Harrah’s in Atlantic City to run his casino. Over the next few years this man also hired away from Harrah’s people to fill top positions at Merv’s casino including COO, legal councilor, CFO and VP of Marketing. It was the latter who had been my boss at Harrah’s and then he brought me over to Merv’s casino. I was hired to start a new Marketing Finance Division and given four or five employees from the Finance department.

Oh it was heady times! I remember that we laughed a lot back then. There was this great feeling of comradery as we exHarrah’s employees banded together with an us vs. them attitude. This was also the first time I was part of the executive team and it was exhilarating. In meeting after meeting we outlined what we were going to do, how we would implement all the things that worked at our old casino and try out new ideas that we were never free to try before. We were going to take this small underperforming casino and make it into something wonderful. We worked long hours but we didn’t mind. And every now and then we took time off to go to a cocktail party and hobnob with Merv where he came to know us by name. Could it be any more fun?

Sure there were some obstacles. Like the fact that the head of Finance, my actual boss, had no say about hiring me and then wasn’t thrilled by the fact that the COO and VP of Marketing continued to bypass her and go straight to me for information and assistance. And yes, my new employees were a bit resentful of me, too. In fact they didn’t like any of these outsiders coming in and taking over. In retrospect none of us were very “gentle” with the existing employees. We were also way too impatient in bringing about change and in doing so we stepped on a lot of toes. And God help anyone who would tell us “that is how we’ve always done it”.

By the time I was brought over, the top man from Harrah’s had already been at this casino for 2-3 years. In the casino environment that is a long time since the average duration of a casino executive is only about 2 years. I started in August and it was my bad luck that this man left the casino in early October. Then right before Thanksgiving Merv conducted a black Friday by firing a dozen or more of the top executives which included almost everyone originally from Harrah’s. Merv then brought in his own friends. The new President assured me I was safe, as did the guys leaving but sure enough, that January in another massive layoff I was fired.

Luckily my old boss quickly landed on his feet at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and shortly thereafter I was packing my bags to work for him there. This time I did a lot of things differently. Once again I found myself working for someone other than my old boss but unlike last time I no longer went around my new boss. In fact this time when the man who brought me there left, I stayed. And a few years later I followed my new boss to another casino, Rio, where the President was the same guy that had previously run Harrah’s and then Merv’s. Like so many businesses, the casino world is very small and you never know when you might run into someone from your past. (Ironically, today Harrah’s owns both Caesars Palace and the Rio!)

I am relating this story because I can’t help but see the similarities with Obama’s team. If my colleagues and I were exhilarated by our newfound power to control people and ideas and to bring about the changes we envisioned then I can only imagine the feelings of the new guys in power in Washington. I learned and became a better manager the second and then third time around. But for Obama and most of the people he brought with him this is their first time out and they don’t have the luxury to make rookie mistakes at our country’s detriment.

This biggest rookie mistake is to take on too much change. Yes you were “hired” because you had great ideas but neither employees nor the country can tolerate a lot of changes all at once. It is too much culture shock. Plus those hired need to spend time understanding their new jobs, environments and the people they work with and work for before they begin to implement any changes. And when they do make changes, they need to make sure that they have won over the old crowd who will then help and not hinder them in implementing the new directions. Instead of hitting us with so many changes in their very first budget, Obama’s team should have prioritized what the country needed most and focused on that in their first year.

When asked about overseeing so many changes, Obama laughed and said something about being able to think about more than one thing at the same time. Of course he can multitask. That was an egomaniacal answer and his accompanying laughter was very rude and condescending. This shows just how much of a rookie he is. For the real question is not if he can handle all his proposed changes but can the country?