So today I really felt great about my journey - plans were in motion to announce a new era at the company the following day and through a series of well crafted e-mails followed by a telephone call to further explain my ideas, I won a small battle with the boss.
He had asked my colleague and I to give our opinion on the memo he planned to deliver to all employees at the company meeting. Recall, this started last week, I tried to lure him there by asking a series of questions, he appeared to not be interested in the details, and I really felt we were at a stale mate. I did not respond to his response to my response to his original email (it's confusing - I realize - but you're smart - stick with me here) - I let him stew over my silence for the weekend. I also recognize that ideas primarily need to be his in order to be accepted so I intentionally stepped back from the conversation so he would have time to ponder.
On Monday, he sent a revised version of the memo to us - he was closer - but not quite there and the memo still wasn't sitting well with me. After asking if I could make a suggestion and him agreeing that I could. I sent the following email:
I read this, I did not come up with this on my own:
HARD goals push all the people involved beyond their current self-imposed restraints. To be effective, HARD goals must be:
Heartfelt (they exist to serve something bigger than ourselves)
Animated (They’re so vividly described and presented that to not reach them would leave us wanting)
Required (They’re as critical to our continued existence as breathing and water)
Difficult (They’re so hard they’ll test every one of our limits)
This is obviously just a VERY small excerpt from a book – But I love it so much – GIVE THEM A TASTE OF IT – Make them want it – THEN challenge them. So if the goal is to grow revenues – What does that mean for THEM? How does this company look at that growth level? This book goes on to describe all of this in great detail, etc. But when I first hit this part of the book – which was at the very beginning – a lightbulb went on:
1. Our goals are NOT heartfelt. Maybe between the 3 of us they are – but do we effectively communicate that to the staff? SERVING SOMETHING BIGGER THAN OURSELVE – ie; - OUR CUSTOMERS – what are we going to deliver to our customers – continually?
2. Our goals are NOT animated – we are growing to triple the revenue. Okay. What does that mean to THEM? Make them TASTE the success of reaching that goal NOW – to the point they want it and want to do all that they can to achieve it
3. Our goals are ONLY required because we dictate them – but do we explain to these people what it means to THEM if these goals are not met? What does it mean if we don’t grow the revenue? To them? What does it mean if we don’t deliver to our customers that which we define we are going to? And I’m not talking about specifics – the delivery to the customer is a broader goal we need to believe in.
4. Difficult – make them so they have to stretch
I don’t think that telling them we are going to grow revenues, then challenging them to tell us what they will do to see make that happen is going to get us miraculously to a new place – I like this book’s concept – it just makes sense – it’s human nature -
[Concepts and ideas credited to "Hundred Percenters" by Mark Murphy]
And then I waited - for his reply. And it actually arrived much quicker than I expected. But when I read it, my heart sank:
If I can summarize: WIFM - Whats in IT For Me?
What's in it for them if we are able to Double in size? Just more work and more of the same? Let me think about that some more.
He wasn't getting it - so I called him and explained it to him because it was easier and less dangerous than engaging in an email battle with him over it. I explained to him that it wasn't about money, raises, prestige, - it is more esoteric than that. He needed to think bigger, broader, more philosophical. Paint a picture of what it feels like to work here when we reach our goal - creativity, innovation, all of those things. After a few minutes, he said he understood and agreed to revise the memo again.
On his third attempt on the memo, I read it and it was obvious to me he had really tried. He had. And it wasn't horrible. But it wasn't as dynamic and enthusiastic as I had hoped. But he did try. And for that effort, I could only accept it and feel that in some ways, I had won that battle. He did paint the picture of the future - he really did - unfortunately it was ALL tied to money. Which isn't necessarily the key motivator for everyone. But he tried. He listened, he opened his mind, and he attempted to apply what I had attempted to teach him.
That's as much as I could have hoped for in a single day!
I also held my meeting with my direct staff - in which I read to them the Lamplighter chapter of The Little Prince. I'm pretty certain they thought I was drunk. Or crazy. Or perhaps both. As I started to read, one of them interrupted and informed me she needed to leave in 10 minutes to attend to a customer. I assured her I wasn't going to be reading War & Peace and it was but a page and half long chapter. I then put them to task before next week's meeting - to make that list of tasks they perform because of "orders" and next to each one - state the value of that task - to either them professionally, the company, their peers, our department or our customers. And if they found no value for any of those categories - to state that. One of the staff members asked me if I was going to do the exercise also. I assured them I would and that I had nothing to hide. (I also made a mental note to include 'listening to petty bullshit from staff' to my list and indicate it served no value to any of the purposes I had identified). One of the staffers asked if the value stated was supposed to be from their perception or mine. I was amazed that they might actually think I wanted them to state the value from MY perception. It was eye opening for me - that in some way I must have been stifling them and just sending them the message to shut up and do the work because it provides x, y, z value - and they thought this exercise was more of test to see if they could reiterate to me the instruction I'd given them previously. I assured them I wanted THEIR perception - I have my own thank you - I want YOURS.
I'm excited to go through their lists in the next meeting!
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