Change Agents, Business As Usual, and Leaked Coffee Memos

A while back we wrote about a much admired change agent named Howard Schultz, the Chairman of Starbucks. While I am no fan of his acidic, over-burnt coffee, I admire his vision and ability to execute. Shultz has changed the retail and food industries (for better or worse, depending on who you ask) and his company will likely dominate for years to come. Or will they?

This week, it was revealed that Schultz sent a stunning email to the leadership of Starbucks, asking them to step out of a “business as usual” mindset as they plan for 2008. The email was leaked (perhaps intentionally) and published on a web site called Starbucks gossip.

There are so many relevant things for government change agents to glean from this memo.  Here are a few  questions for change agents to ponder:

• When was the last time you stepped outside of “business as usual” and thought through the customer experience your agency was delivering?
• What incentives can you put in place to encourage leadership to avoid business as usual?
• Dogged conceptualizers question business as usual every day. Have you developed the ability to harness their innovative perspective?
• How often have you sought outside help in questioning your reality and decisions? Please note I am not talking about “yes men” consultants here.
• If a ”business as usual” mindset was crippling your agency, how would even know it?
• Would you take responsibility for “business as usual” thinking if it was brought to your attention? (see how Schultz takes responsibility below)

The above questions are sobering and will surely haunt leadership in agencies that do not think them through, and put forth strategies to avoid a “business as usual” mindest.

While researching the change agent paper, one such forward-looking strategy was brought to my attention. Louis Andre, then Chief of Staff from the Defense Intelligence Agency, commissioned a study on the “Workforce of the Future”, and engaged the very forward-looking Toffler Associates to write the report. Unlike Schultz, the DIA did not wait to write a memo questioning their mindset about the future.

Below are two parts of the Schultz memo that I found very telling. Change agents, grab a coffee and read this memo very, very carefully. You may need to write a similar memo inside your agency in the not too distant future:

“Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand. Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces.

Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it’s time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience.”

Thoughts or reactions? Please send them to us.