A colleague called me today asking for a "teaching moment" whereby I could give him some advice. I love those kind of phone calls!
He is wanting to tackle a process in his organization that crosses departments -- meaning that everyone has a piece, but no one owns the process. Translated, this means that everyone does their own thing and no one (up until now) has bothered to consider the whole process from a client perspective or to be intentional about how it occurs. He was asking how he could affect change without becoming the "do-er" or permanent owner of the whole thing.
My answer: "sorry." As much as he would like to dream up the solution and hand it off, it isn't a realistic option. He is asking people who have done things the same way for literally decades to make a change. They don't want to; don't need to; don't see the purpose for doing so, and are certainly not going to volunteer to own a new process. His best hope is to focus, over and over and over, on the "why" behind the changes he is proposing; take responsibility for doing the new work himself this year, and hope that those involved will see the improvement. Next year it will be easier to delegate something that people have actually seen (and hopefully understand.)
After I shared my thoughts, he laughed and said "I knew that is what you were going to say. I knew that I had to do the work; I was just hoping there was another answer."
Those with the vision often have to assume the workload in order to see the new ideas implemented. It is hard for people who are entrenched in a process to even fathom how it could be different, so you must show them instead of just telling them.
So dream on, my dear friend, and then roll up your sleeves and get to it.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
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