Someone with a wide network tells a respected recruiter that a leading resister might welcome a real outside role, and if the person takes it, the opposition loses its center.
Borderline: whether this move is justified depends on the situation, and only the person in it can judge.
An example
By spring, the chief operating officer of a third-party logistics company had a plan to automate its four largest distribution centers, and its most effective opponent was the vice president of warehouse operations. He was also, she knew, frustrated at not being promoted, and she thought he was ready to run a company. When a recruiter she had worked with mentioned a chief operating officer search at a growing regional carrier, she said the vice president might be worth a call, and nothing else about him. The recruiter ran a normal search. He checked the company, liked it, and took the role in September. Before he left, she asked him to write down his objections to the automation plan, and the steering committee adopted two of them. The plan passed in October.
Why it works
Third-party credibility makes the outside role look better than anything the company could offer internally: a bigger title, equity, a mandate, all vouched for by a recruiter. Leaving is easy, because a better opportunity preserves face and references and lets the person tell the story as ambition. Staying picks up a cost it did not have before, the upside foregone, though nothing inside gets worse. It works when the person's ambition exceeds their role, when the opportunity is real enough to survive their own checks, when the recruiter has independent standing, and when the resistance follows the person more than the cause.
The thinking behind it
Robert B. Cialdini Cialdini's Influence (1984) describes the pull of authority: people tend to defer to those who appear to hold legitimate expertise or position. An approach from a respected recruiter carries credibility the company could not supply about its own rival, which is why the outside role looks so attractive, and why the person's own checks matter more than the recruiter's word.
Erving Goffman In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956), Goffman shows people managing the impressions others form of them. Leaving for a better opportunity is an easy performance to give: the departing resister presents the move as ambition, keeps face and references, and so pays very little for taking the exit.
When it fits
Ambitious resisters are the case for it: a leading opponent who wants more than their role offers, an outside role that would be a real step up, and recruiter relationships that make a mention natural. It suits situations where direct removal would cost more than an exit the person chooses.
How to use it well
Mention the person, and stop there.
- Point a recruiter you trust toward the person for a real search they would plausibly want, and say only what you would say on any reference call.
- Let the recruiter and the hiring company run their normal process.
- Keep working with the person on the merits while they decide.
- If they leave, get their objections written down and answered, so the departure is not the only thing that settles the argument.
If they stay, keep working with them as before. The referral was an opportunity, and declining it carries no penalty.
What it costs and where it backfires
If the person learns you suggested them, they may read it as a push, and others will hear about it. The resistance may outlast them if it was loyal to the cause. Honesty with every party is what keeps it clean. Inventing an opportunity, passing on confidential information about the person, or steering the hiring company with claims you would not stand behind turns a referral into deception.
When it is used on you
Suspect an outside role that fits your profile and timing a little too well while you are leading opposition, and ask the recruiter who suggested your name. Weigh the role on its merits, and if you take it, hand the cause to allies first, with the arguments written down.