“Law Five” from my article: “The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management 5)Ask for commitment – not agreement One of my most successful friends (and clients from my law practice days) has a One Sentence Journal and he posted the following wisdom one day: “Commitment and Doubt”: Commitment does not require the absence of doubt; often commitment means acting despite your doubt. (From Larry Anderson’s One Sentence Journal June 17 entry.) (Larry’s success is not only financial it transcends to a long-term happy marriage and philanthropy.) Think about it. You do not need your entire firm to agree with you and should not even ask for that. What you must demand, and accept nothing less than, is that your people commit to help you achieve your objectives even if they have doubts. At worst, someone who is not pivotal to the initiative may remain neutral and that means not sabotaging the effort in any way. But for that exception, those who offer passive or active interference must be confronted. If you don’t have the support to pull that off, step aside. You are allowed to lobby for that support but it must be forthcoming or else your resignation should be tendered. This is not hypothetical – this is how the well-managed firms are run. Choose your initiatives carefully because you must succeed in attempting them. They don’t all have to work but you have to be allowed to try them and give them the firm’s best efforts. If not, call the election. (Law 6) Law #1 Law #2 Law #3 Law #4 ( thanks to Cameron Cooper of the Australian Law Journal where my article first appeared)