When it comes to Leadership, how many times in your life have you heard…”If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem?”
The phrase has found its way in front of me many times before, but it is just recently that it has began to resonate like never before.
The company that I lead has been around a long time. More than 60 years in fact. With that much time in business habits are formed and processes are created. These processes often are deeply rooted in the company’s operating philosophy and/or culture.
The problem is not all of these processes are still the best. Many fall into the category of “Just because it is the way it has been done, doesn’t mean that is the best way.” Nevertheless, people resist change. Whether it is inevitable or not, most people don’t want to change (at least not very much).
On the other hand, everyone wants things to run better. Aspirations for more opportunity, financial gain, and benefits are often central topics for discussion. A desire for things to run faster, smoother, and more seamless regularly find their way into team meetings.
Filled with good intentions these ideas are discussed, plans are often generated with such feedback in mind, and then what happens?
Little if anything…
So with such desire for success and continuous improvement why does an organization fail to execute?
There is no one answer for this question, in fact there are countless reasons why great ideas fail or see less than optimal success. It can be bad planning, it can be poor systems, or low performance by those executing. It can also be a combination of symptoms, nonetheless, it is a problem and it must be corrected.
One of the things I see from time to time is a resistance or indifference to change that can be the quiet killer of innovation. It isn’t something that can be seen or heard like the noted change resisters that cause problems for organizational change. These are more the people that have just grown skeptical if not cynical that real positive change in a process or culture can be made.
This group is harder to identify, often they profess positive feelings toward ideas so unlike the change proponents and resistors you often cannot spot these types in a crowd. They fall into the quote above as they become part of the problem by default since they are not part of the solution.
What to do with this group?
This group exists in almost every company and every culture. Only naive leaders think they have 100% buy-in from everyone. However this group is the one that can most influence transformation. While scientifically I have not found the perfect solution to on boarding this entire group, I have found a few things that work to bring them on your side.
- Communicate Communicate Communicate: The group that is often on the fence seeks more than anyone in the organization to be communicated with. Often it is a feeling of being an outsider that makes them resistant to change.
- Ask For Suggestions, Ask for Buy-In: If you aren’t allowing this group to contribute ideas they will resist. This group feels like they bring value and they do. It is also important that they know you WANT their buy in. So ask for it!
- Make It Their Idea: This is sales 101, but everyone wants the idea of the day to be theirs. Good leaders don’t seek credit, they give it because they know it yields results. So whether the idea really did originate from you or them, make it theirs. You will be glad you did.
- Relentless Follow Through: Don’t communicate once, take suggestions once, ask for buy in once etc. It is repetition that creates buy in, so be sure to do these things often.
The side-liners in your organization may be part of the change resistance that you cannot see, however, if you are blind to their existence, then you are part of the problem and not the solutions.
