Putting a respected, well-liked leader in front of a contested initiative lends it their credibility, and critics who would have to oppose a popular person to reach the plan mostly decide not to.
An example
The head of revenue at a hotel group wanted to move pricing for its fourteen properties into one central system, and every general manager she spoke to heard it as a loss of control. So she spent a month with the longest-serving general manager in the company, who ran the flagship and had trained half the others. She showed him six months of rate data from two pilot hotels and let him pick the model apart. He found a problem with group bookings, she fixed it, and he agreed to open the announcement at the spring managers' meeting. He spoke for ten minutes about why he had changed his mind, then handed every technical question to her team. Twelve of the fourteen properties signed on in the first quarter.
Why it works
Having a respected figure in front makes the initiative look better, because people read it as carrying that person's judgment and record. Agreeing gets easier, since those who trust the figure can lean on that trust and skip a full evaluation, and nobody wants to look as if they distrust someone widely respected. Opposing gets costlier, because critics now seem to be attacking a popular colleague. It rests on a reputation broad enough for the question at hand, visible independence from the people who designed the plan, no past controversy, and conduct that keeps matching the figure's values.
The thinking behind it
Carl I. Hovland Carl Hovland's Communication and Persuasion (1953) treated persuasion as a question of who says what to whom, and one of its central findings is that the same message is judged differently depending on the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of the person delivering it. A respected leader fronting an initiative changes how the same plan is received. The finding also shows why the figure must be credible on the question at hand.
Robert B. Cialdini Among the principles in Robert Cialdini's Influence (1984) is the tendency to defer to people who appear to hold legitimate standing. A figure widely respected inside the company gives others a reason to accept a plan without evaluating every detail, and makes opposing it feel like questioning that person. It explains why the move works, and why the designers need to be present to answer the detailed questions the figure cannot.
When it fits
Sound initiatives resisted mainly out of distrust are the candidates, where the people affected take their cue from a few respected colleagues. You need a figure whose reputation covers the kind of question at stake (technical credibility carries poorly into questions of fairness) and who will examine the plan and come to back it on their own.
How to use it well
Choose the figure for the breadth of their standing with the people affected, and make sure the reputation is clean.
- Give them the full case and the freedom to say no. A figure visibly pressed into the role tells everyone what is going on.
- Fix what they find. Their objections are the best preview you will get of the room's.
- Keep the designers beside them at the announcement to take detailed questions, so the figure never has to defend what they cannot explain.
- After launch, keep the initiative's conduct in line with what the figure stands for.
Check in with them regularly. Their continued backing is part of what holds the plan up, and it needs maintenance.
What it costs and where it backfires
You borrow a reputation and owe its owner. If the initiative's conduct drifts from the figure's values, the halo turns against you, and the figure pays too. The largest exposure is the figure stepping back in public, which drops the cost of opposition to nothing overnight and leaves the plan standing on its merits alone. The move stays honest while the figure has examined the plan and believes in it. Lending a famous name whose expertise has nothing to do with the question, to imply an endorsement of the substance, misleads people.
When it is used on you
Take your questions to the designers when a respected figure fronts an announcement outside their own area and cannot answer detailed questions. Judge the plan on its merits, and track whether its conduct keeps matching the figure's stated values. If the figure ever steps back, the case suddenly has to stand alone, so be ready with your objections when that happens.