Cleopatra’s Retreat – A powerful Change Management Lesson

Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, is evidently the most chronicled, enigmatic and controversial woman in history. The Egyptian Queen is popular even today for her unparalleled beauty, her mastery of nine languages, the admiration she received from her subjects, her relationship with Julius Caesar and her eventual nemesis through her decadent relationship with Mark Antony.

Cleopatra’s charm won over Mark Antony and he terminated his tripartite partnership with Octavian. He then moved to Egypt to marry Cleopatra and rule over the eastern legions of the Roman Empire. Their power struggles with Rome and Octavian continued eventually culminating in a historic naval battle that is now known as the ‘Battle of Actium’.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony, the power couple, set up a fierce naval force with giant warships fitted with powerful bronze bows / rams. These bronze rams were designed to smash the enemy’s ships below the waterline and make them sink. In the battlefront Cleopatra and Mark Antony had a fleet of 500 warships. Mark led from the front while Cleopatra was behind Mark’s frontline in second flank with 60 ships.

In comparison, Octavian had a much smaller and less powerful fleet of 260 warships. On the day of the naval battle, it is said that Octavian’s fleet was actually backing down behind and going to the sides in fear of Cleopatra and Mark Antony’s powerful warships. While this was prolonging the combat, Antony’s front facing fleet had more than a fighting chance to defeat Octavian’s smaller warships. But Cleopatra somehow felt that Antony’s ships were slowing down and may not have enough impact on Octavian’s ships when they ram them. Harboring doubts in her mind, Cleopatra’s and her rear fleet just retreated in to the open sea without engaging. Seeing Cleopatra flee Mark Antony backed down and followed his ladylove leaving behind hundreds of ships and his over 5000 men to a battle lost to Octavian’s Western European Roman Empire. The desolate Mark Antony caught up and boarded Cleopatra’s ship but didn’t speak to his wife and sat with his head in his hands for three days. After they fled back to Egypt their relationship suffered leading to their downfall and eventual death, both taking their own lives separately.

‘Cleopatra’s Retreat’ offers one of the foundational lessons in Change Management that despite having the best capabilities it is so critical to have senior leadership alignment. From the way the battle panned out, we can see that the doubts in Cleopatra’s mind led to her retreat and made Mark Antony also follow suit. Despite having a much more powerful fleet of warships they lost the battle to a seemingly weaker enemy, all because Cleopatra had doubts in her mind. Had she remained aligned with her husband, the battle would have had a different result and Western Europe would have never become so powerful and you can imagine from future events that today’s world could have been a very different place.

The lesson for change practitioners, is that each one of us will need the unflinching sponsorship of the senior most leader in the organization which galvanizes the leadership team. The big takeaways in my mind are

1. Never ever compromise in your efforts to align your senior most leader
2. Probe the leader and make sure they share every single doubt they have in their heads
3. The senior most leader will be constrained for time, but change champions need to grab their time and attention and ensure they are aligned fully

And, if you cannot do the above, please be prepared to face ‘Cleopatra’s Retreat’ on the day of the decisive battle.

PS: Several historical facts are simplified in the above narrative: Mark Antony, Lepidus and Octavian ran a political alliance called the Triumvirate for Organizing the Roman state. Before meeting Cleopatra, Mark Antony was married to Octavian’s sister Octavia Minor. He later divorced her and moved to Alexandria in Egypt to marry Cleopatra. Octavian’s trusted General Marcus Agrippa’s mastery and wise counsel is credited as a big reason for Octavian’s victory in the Battle of Actium. Octavian was later known as Augustus Caesar and 300 years of peace followed the Battle of Actium. This reshaped the world order with the rise in power of Western Europe, then European Imperialism and eventually the development of the US as a world power. As you can imagine, there are conflicting stories in various websites and videos in the internet, whose plausibility need not be contested as the premise of this article is different. Cheers!