Jon Snow and a Fatal Change Management Framework
This post contains spoilers based on the HBO TV series and assumes the reader is caught up or doesn’t care. This post is cross posted from my blog: www.tuckershouse.me.
For one week, Game of Thrones viewers have had to come to terms with the fatal mutiny of Jon Snow — a central character that was beloved in the series. And while the TV series did change a bit from the books, and even though there is debate about Jon’s final mortality, one thing is very clear: Jon Snow faced a mutiny that he should have seen coming.
Background and a Bold Vision
Like many leaders, Jon Snow had a bold vision for the future. In Jon’s vision, the historic hatred and bloodshed between the Night’s Watch, the organization he lead, and the Wildlings, a group of displaced non-Westeros Citizens, would be put aside. Jon knew that if the two enemies did not unite, they would all fall to the hands of the White Walkers and their pending zombie army. This vision of the future was heavily formed by Jon’s past with both the Night’s Watch and the Wildlings. Unlike anyone else in the history of the Night’s Watch, Jon was able to empathize and understand the Wildlings given his time in captivity his complex personal relationships. Despite countless objections from the Night’s Watch, Jon’s vision was for the two groups to set aside their differences and work together against a common enemy that could destroy them all.
What Went Wrong
Unfortunately for Jon, a lot went wrong. Some of it, such as an abrupt attack by the White Walkers on the Wildling encampment Jon was visiting, was unavoidable. But other aspects, and particularly those with relation the Night’s Watch, were entirely avoidable and a result of his poor leadership. With the departure of Sam Tarley, Jon’s last remaining friend in in Castle Black, Alliser Thorne and the rest of the Night’s Watch launched a mutiny against Jon. The most tragic part of the scene is when Olly, Jon’s steward, finished the mutiny with a final blow. My hypothesis is that Jon repeatedly failed to articulate and gather feedback on his vision within his own team ultimately leading to his own “death.”
A Fatal Framework
No matter how you slice your world, constantly evaluating your stakeholder ecosystem is a necessity for any modern leader. One way to do so is based on an individual’s “alignment to vision” — i.e. how much they agree or disagree with the vision — and the individual’s “ability to influence” — i.e. how influential and powerful they can be on the rest of the group. Where an individual falls within any group changes over time for each person. Jon’s stakeholder map could thus look something like this:
After Jon came back from speaking with the Wildlings, the only council he sought was Sam who had limited influence within the Night’s Watch. Jon ignored the powerful antagonistic subset within the Night’s Watch, and he spent no time asking them what they thought of the situation or seeking their input. The only “change management” Jon did focus on was with Olly, and that proved to be unsuccessful on his young steward. There is a time and place when a leader needs to lead despite harsh criticism, but Jon cared so little that he even self-proclaimed himself as “the most hated man in Castle Black.”
What does this have to do with change management?
Everything! No matter what business or organization you are involved with, chances are you are undergoing a rapid amount of change in one way or another. In the enterprise world the term is change management, and in the startup world the term us growth hacking/Crossing the chasm/user adoption depending on where you work (these terms have important differences that I’d be happy to debate offline). When big changes happen, such as two hated teams working together for the first time, people need time to 1) understand your vision, 2) understand what they can/should do, and 3) embrace those actions. Doing this takes time, it takes patience, and it can feel too slow for those who are already aligned to the vision. Rather than take the time to explain why the Night’s Watch needed the Wildlings, Jon stayed true to his Stark character and rushed into every situation leading with blind honor.
The truth about slow and far
There is a saying: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. There is no doubt that Jon needed to go fast due to an impending threat of zombie invasion, but he forgot that his team needed to go somewhere culturally very far from where they currently were. This leap, combined with Jon’s inability to better align his men, lead to Jon’s mutiny. Jon’s tragic end (?) is a reminder that in a time of change, you need to go slow, you need to build alignment, and you need to listen to people… or else we could end up being stabbed by our own men.
