Chapter Ten. More Influence Strategies
Even though you now have resources, your enthusiasm will still be tested daily. So you will need to continually expand your bag of influence strategies. In this chapter we introduce Hometown Story(164), Smell of Success(219), Just Enough(180), In Your Space(167), Token(243), and Location, Location, Location(189) to add to your toolbox.
A wise observer once said, “People will always do what you want them to do if what you want them to do is what they want to do.” But if you are proposing something that people aren’t eager to do, the act of convincing may mean you must present a logical argument with cold hard facts. Unfortunately, research has shown that most of us make decisions based on emotion and then justify those decisions with facts. Your effectiveness as a change agent will rest on more than your ability to talk to people, whether you’re doing that one-on-one using the pattern Personal Touch(198) or in front of a group using the pattern Brown Bag(113). You’ll also need to learn as much as you can from the successes of others.
Leonardo da Vinci cautioned, “Flee the advice of these speculators whose reasons have not been confirmed by experience.” Everyone likes to hear stories of risk-taking and will take them to heart if they respect the teller. This is especially true for people who are in the Early Majority(141). When they hear what others are trying, they think to themselves, “This is what some people are paying attention to; maybe we should, too!”
In Chapter 9, you learned how to convince teams to do a Trial Run(245) so you might have some Early Adopters(138) who have tried the innovation. Take advantage of their experience and use the Hometown Story(164) pattern. Ask people to share their story in an informal forum where they can just talk about their experience and then interact in a question and answer session.
We have seen amazing things happen at these sessions. Some people who have been holding back will suddenly perk up because they see that their colleagues have tried the new idea, survived, and found real benefit in it. As the saying goes, “Nothing succeeds like success.”
The Smell of Success(219) pattern recognizes that people will be drawn to the innovation when they hear about positive results. Thus there will be an increasing number of people who will have questions and requests for more information. Most of us have seen those movies about someone who has a good idea but is not having much luck convincing others. The innovator may even be seen as crazy in the beginning. But then the plot takes a turn, the new idea solves a big problem—maybe the whole town or the company is saved—and things start to look up. Skeptics are suddenly interested and new supporters step forward.
Okay, your experiences are not likely to be as dramatic, but even when small successes appear, people will take notice. They will want to find out what’s going on and become a part of it. The pattern Smell of Success advises you to treat their inquiries as a “teaching moment.” You can apply the pattern Personal Touch(198) to help them understand how the new idea can be useful for them.
The other pattern to keep in mind during these encounters is Just Enough(180). You’re not talking to Innovators or Early Adopters at this point. The new arrivals are typically members of the Early Majority. They are a bit more reluctant. They’re not resistant, just hesitant, and there’s probably a good reason for that. Maybe they’ve been burned in the past. Maybe they’re just too busy to follow every promise of another so-called silver bullet.
As the Dedicated Champion, your job is to tell them what they need to know when they need to know it; no more, no less. Don’t browbeat or overwhelm them. Encourage and support them. As Hall of Fame basketball coach Morgan Wootten has said, “A lighthouse doesn’t blow a horn, it shines a light.” Do the same for all those struggling to understand the new idea. Give them just enough information and let them know you’ll be around when they’re ready for more.
Keep Things Visible
When people are asking questions and things are happening, it’s a good idea to keep the work-in-progress visible using the pattern In Your Space(167). Making sure the new idea is seen throughout your organization will have a positive impact on the rate at which people adopt it. There are many ways to do this. Mary Lynn posted a small sign outside her office that said “Ask me about patterns.” That prompted quite a few questions! She also put a whiteboard in a high traffic area and displayed the “Pattern of the Week.” The space was an active one because it included some room for anyone to record comments and questions. One week they played “Pattern Jeopardy” on the board. The postings drew attention to the patterns effort and stimulated conversation as people passed by.
The popular book Fish! describes the best practices of the successful Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. The importance of play in the workplace is emphasized as a core value. The book tells a story about a company that tried to bring more playfulness into the workplace by starting a “Joke-of-the-month” contest on its own bulletin board.
Another Evangelist who devised a new process for prioritizing work in the company used a corkboard to display cards with major tasks. The board was placed in a central location so that anyone in the office could see the plan at any time. It was portable so it could be carried to a weekly team meeting.
You can also use electronic media. In one company we visited, an electronic newsletter was sent out several times a week with timely notices. Important activities pertaining to the latest and greatest were always advertised and any related publications described. This kept the news of innovative approaches in front of everyone, especially management.
It’s Just a Token
Another way to keep something alive in people’s minds is to use the Token(243) pattern. This simple influence strategy suggests that you hand out something for the participants to take with them when they attend an event related to the new idea. You can do this without much effort, because even small trinkets make events more memorable. For example, we’re all familiar with the distribution of certificates at the end of a course, but people may be more likely to keep something that is just a bit more creative and usual.
Mary Lynn has participated in countless sessions at a variety of conferences. Yet she still remembers a particular workshop in 2000 because she came away with a small stuffed animal that she keeps on her desk. Most people have one or two, or even more, of those simple things displayed in their homes or offices. Despite the fact that the tokens are usually small and inexpensive, and sometimes silly, they still remind us of some special event, and that is what matters.
Location Also Counts
As you schedule meetings related to the innovation, consider the important pattern Location, Location, Location(189). What’s true for real estate is also true for events. Linda facilitates retrospectives. One company she visited held a two-day retrospective at a local country club. The facility was beautiful and the snacks and lunch were just right. She kept thinking during the entire experience, “The company really cares about this and the people seem to feel that. They don’t seem as frazzled as some teams do at the end of a project.” We are all impacted by our surroundings. Christopher Alexander’s patterns began because he was concerned about what he called the “quality without a name” that he feels is disappearing from our lives. This quality is something we sense, sometimes without knowing it, but it is a powerful influencer on how happy we are with our work and other aspects of our lives, including new ideas.
Mary Lynn’s department holds its yearly retreats away from their usual place of business. It’s a nice site, but nothing special. The important thing is that it keeps the department members focused on learning, brainstorming ideas, and planning for the future rather than on all the work that is sitting on their desks back at the office.
Even in these days of corporate belt-tightening, teams can find creative ways to make the location special. A member of one team we knew lived across the street from the company. Since the company was in Phoenix, this fellow, like many Phoenix residents, had a pool in his back yard. It was common for the team to adjourn across the street and sit around the pool on late Friday afternoons for status meetings. As a result, the Friday afternoons were more productive because the team members took an hour away in a place that was more relaxing and less stress provoking than the four walls of a corporate meeting room.
Things Are Humming
Your experience with the patterns in this chapter may be similar to John’s, a colleague who shared his story with us:
It took awhile to get to this point, but finally a few colleagues who had tried out the innovation agreed to share their experiences. So I scheduled a room, bought a few bagels, and arranged the chairs in a circle to encourage informal conversation. It was a pleasant surprise to see that some of the attendees were people who had been quite skeptical, but they asked a lot of questions and seemed to come away with a more positive attitude. A few weeks later, I scheduled a similar session led by another person who had seen some possibilities during a trial run. I gave everyone who attended one of these talks a hand-made star inscribed, “Reach for the stars.” It was interesting to see how my work changed after these two events. Rather than constantly seeking out people who might be convinced, I spent more time with people who contacted me. At first I eagerly told them everything I knew. I soon realized that I was overwhelming these more cautious latecomers, so I just answered their immediate concerns and reminded them that I was available if they had more questions.
One of the ways I kept them involved was to transform a rarely used bulletin board into a space to publicize the latest happenings. There was a place for scribbling comments and questions, so the board was alive with discussion and replies to the questions. After a few months, we got permission to hold a planning session in a popular hotel restaurant. In this time of tight budgets, each of us paid for our own lunch, but it was still nice to spend the time in a comfortable surrounding away from the office.
Now that you’ve applied nearly all our patterns, it would be easy to rest on your laurels and think that everything is fine without your interference. What we’ve seen, however, is the importance of the two patterns we’ve saved for last (well, almost last). In the next chapter, you’ll realize that you still need to expend energy and resources to keep it going.