Chapter 15

Assisting Acceptance

Over the next week, the main team got their subteams together to work on developing the idea groupings they felt were key for their client. After using POINt as their main method of analysis, most of the teams found that they required additional information to further flesh out the main ideas. Globalization needed information on international law. Staffing required the demographic information of current Consolidated employees. Supply chain needed more information on current Consolidated suppliers and began looking at redundancies and cost comparisons. All team leaders, having now experienced the breakthrough thinking process, were able to move their teams through it efficiently. The workable ideas within each grouping were analyzed further. Eventually, comprehensive recommendations based on available data (from not just the usual sources—they wouldn't make that mistake again!) coalesced in their final reports. In the process, some ideas were abandoned as unworkable or not timely. Other ideas were expanded on or morphed into new concepts altogether.

The process of developing and reporting on their recommendations spanned the next three weeks, with each miniteam working long hours. Kate would check in with them every day or two. She would alternate dropping by their meeting place and just stopping by the team leader's office. She felt going in person was better than electronic communication at this point. She needed to see the nonverbal behavior of the people working so hard to get this done in order to intuitively understand how things were going. She needed to see the “face” of the team to be able to target her questions well.

Kate had to walk a delicate balance. If she was too present within each group, she would appear as if she were micromanaging. If she was too absent, a group might forget its connection to the whole. She walked this line deftly. She only provided direction when asked. When she felt they were off course, she would ask purposefully open-ended questions to help the subteams consider alternative courses. She also quietly kept her own notes after each encounter to capture where she felt the subgroup was in the process and what else she'd like to see accomplished. From these notes, she noticed a piece that each team had yet to consider but had been on her mind since her last conversation with Tony—how would Consolidated react to the novelty contained in the new report?

She had laid the groundwork for Consolidated being open to their new report through her conversation with Alicia. Still, she thought the teams would need to consider how Consolidated would adapt to the changes they were proposing as part of their implementation plan. They needed to foster acceptance right from the start.

Toward the middle of the third week of developing, she called a team meeting to reconnect with everyone and give them one more tool to foster acceptance.

“Everyone, I have to say I'm very impressed with the work of the subgroups. I can see you're all working hard to finish by the end of the week. Some of your teams are putting together recommendations; others are still supporting recommendations with data. Elaine, I think your group is basically done—on to formatting.”

“It's not what you think,” Elaine blurted. “We did not leap to solution and implementation. I know you think we did, but supply chain was very straightforward. It was mostly about process improvement and changing a few supplier contracts, adding to some, eliminating some.”

“Uh-huh . . . ,” said Damon. He and Elaine traded less-than-fully-evolved looks at each other.

“It's OK, Elaine. I watched your progress. I saw you keeping everyone on track but your implementation side never took over,” Kate said, glancing at Damon. “But because you are all nearing the end with your teams, I wanted to bring you together and ask about how your section might be received. So just let me ask you to consider these two questions,” she said as she unveiled a previously covered pair of flip chart papers. Each flip chart had one question written as its headline:

“What might help your client accept your proposal?”

“What might get in the way of their accepting your proposal?”

Doing a very poor impression of Yoda from Star Wars, Juan said, “The tool belt is strong in this one, I sense.” Juan was making jokes? Juan? Things have changed, they all thought, amazed.

“Yes, it's a pretty easy one,” Kate continued unfazed. “It's just a targeted way of thinking through the whole of the implementation. Basically, it addresses something that a lot of organizations either overlook or diminish the importance of in order to get a product out the door. It's how we are going to help Consolidated begin managing change. It's all about overcoming resistance and gaining acceptance.”

The face of each team member seemed attentive and ready to see where this was going so Kate plowed ahead.

“First, let's talk for minute about why we need to do this. Why do you think we should start helping Consolidated manage change now rather than waiting till the ideas are accepted and being implemented?” Kate asked.

Maya reacted immediately. “Didn't you already do this when you spoke with Alicia?”

Amy followed, “Yes, wasn't that what your conversations with Alicia have been about?”

“Absolutely,” said Kate, “but managing change is a process; it doesn't happen all at once. You can't just check it off your to-do list and say ‘there, done.’ It takes time to go through a process, and at each step of implementation it's worth checking in with the notion of how we are managing change.”

Elaine was intrigued. “When I have implemented things in the past, I can't really say I even paid attention to how people manage change. I mean, they either get on board or they don’t. That's their problem. The plan still gets implemented.”

“Smoothly?” Juan asked.

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But the plan still gets implemented,” Elaine continued.

“I can tell you from where I sit that that approach makes me uncomfortable,” Juan followed. “I have to know more about a plan before I can implement it. I have to be very comfortable with the whole idea.”

“Yes. That's the clarifier in you. I can see that,” said Maya. “It's not unreasonable to think that many people might need some time to be on board with a change. And here we are presenting something really new and different. If people are not comfortable with what's being presented initially, why would they follow it through?”

“I've been on teams charged with implementing things where the people we asked to do the heavy lifting would say, ‘Yes, sure, let's do it,’ and then not do anything,” added Juan. “It was as though they didn't like it, didn't feel they could say anything, so they would agree to it and then passively let it fail.”

“And whether they get on board with it starts at the beginning,” Amy said matter-of-factly. “Have you ever seen anything like that when you implement something, Elaine?”

Elaine thought for a moment. “Yes. I've had that trouble at times.” She looked at her laptop in front of her uncomfortably. “I guess I see what you're saying.”

“The people we are going to present our work to will be ready for novelty, at least that's what Alicia has led me to believe,” said Kate, “but we have to assume there will be some resistance to what we present right off the bat. If we can anticipate that resistance and leverage those things that might enable acceptance, then we stand a chance of succeeding with getting something new in place.”

“Is that what this tool is for?” asked Damon.

“Exactly. It gets right to that point quickly and efficiently. It's called ‘assisters-resisters’ and it's a way of targeting some divergent thinking toward managing change.”

The group was silent, focused, and ready to hear more, so Kate continued. “On the first page, as you can see, you identify things that are going to help get the ideas accepted. When it comes to implementation, these are the things we will be sure to leverage.”

She continued, “The second page is where you put those things that may get in the way of the idea being accepted. In a minute, I'm going to show you how to use these to produce some action steps that you'll want to incorporate into your proposal.”

“So it's a list,” Juan said, somewhat disappointed. Secretly he was hoping there'd be more toys involved.

“Yes, but not a free-form list. For this, I'd like you to identify the answers to the questions in five categories. These are the standard categories every newspaper reporter has to gather information in order to put together a story. It's the five Ws. Do you know what those are?”

“Who, what, where, when, and why,” Amy said immediately.

“Exactly,” said Kate, writing each of these words on the flip chart as she continued to explain. “On this first page, identify who is going to assist your ideas in being accepted. Who will champion them? Then, what kinds of things might help your ideas be accepted? Then look at whether there are places that might be of assistance. After that, are there any times that will help you get the ideas accepted? And last, what are the compelling reasons the ideas should be accepted?”

Amy, Maya, and Juan all began speaking at the same time. “Hold on.” “What do mean by ‘What are some times that will help?’” “What do you mean by ‘places’?”

“Good questions. I think the best way to show you is for you to see the tool in action. Elaine, because your group is farthest along, can we try using this tool on what you've been working on?”

“Sure,” she replied.

“Thanks. Would you please give the rest of the group a short synopsis of your report?” Kate asked. “Emphasis on short, please; just give enough information for the team to get a sense of where you and your group are taking our client.”

“Well, like I said before, supply chain was a very straightforward area. We mapped out some processes that they were currently using to receive the supplies they need for their products. You know, Consolidated produces a lot of things and we couldn't do everything, so we focused on their main brands, about 80 percent of their profit base. We found that some contracts with the suppliers made no sense; others simply needed to be leveraged more effectively. In one case, we found they were receiving the same materials at different costs from three different suppliers. Why this was never found is beyond me. We also found that some suppliers actually had more completed versions of the product Consolidated was buying and then assembling itself. They are buying aluminum sheets for making their own cans when they could buy the empty cans already assembled at a price only slightly more than the sheets. That change alone should result in an enormous one-time savings in manufacturing costs. So we're making some pretty specific recommendations for changing their business and their relationships with several of their suppliers.”

“And this is going to affect the part of their business that produces 80 percent of their profits?” Juan clarified.

“Yes. But it makes so much sense. I honestly cannot see how anyone would be against our recommendations. Really straightforward stuff.”

“Perfect. Any other questions for Elaine before we get into it?” Kate asked. There were none. So they began with Kate filling in the flip charts. “Who might help this idea get adopted?”

The answers streamed from the team:

“The head of finance.”

“The CEO.”

“Alicia.”

“Board members.”

“Accounting.”

“The suppliers, at least some of them.”

After a few more minutes of diverging, Kate asked her next question. “What are some things that will help get these ideas accepted?”

“The budget.”

“The annual report.”

“The focus on profit.”

After a few more responses, Kate asked a weirder W question. “Where are some places that will help get these ideas accepted?”

“Not the cannery, that's for sure,” Damon laughed.

“OK, so that might be a resister. I'll put that on the other sheet, but let's try to stay focused on the assisters. Where are some places that will help get these ideas accepted?” Kate repeated.

“The board room.”

“The break rooms.”

“The loading dock.”

“See? That wasn't so hard. Let's go on to another one. “When are some times that might help get these ideas accepted?” There was a pause. Kate waited. The pause continued. Kate had an expression that said that she fully expected them to come up with some answers. She was sure someone in the team would bend before she would have to rephrase the question. Finally, Juan spoke up and then others followed.

This one seemed to run out of steam quickly, so she just moved on to the last W question. “Finally, the why. Why will these ideas be accepted?”

“It makes financial sense.”

“It would reduce costs.”

“And labor.”

“It simplifies the process.”

“It makes life easier.”

After a few more minutes of diverging, the group was clearly satisfied with their exploration and out of more reasons to add. Kate congratulated the group on a job well done and then asked for them to consider the negative side. “Who might resist the new ideas?”

“Can they be some of the same people that were on the assist side?” asked Maya.

“They often are,” replied Kate.

“Board members.”

“The unions.”

“The cannery personnel.”

“Some front-line managers.”

She continued down her list of resisters till the sheet was almost filled. Some of the potential points of resistance she wrote included the following:

“The trucking union.”

“After harvest season.”

“Because people may see a lot of hassle in changing.”

“Because they have nowhere to store the cans they buy.”

“Because they don't think saving money is as important as keeping jobs.”

“Now here's the challenging part. Remember how I've asked you to use a couple of stems to form questions? We did that in the clarifying part of the process and again within the issues part of the POINt process. Each one of these resisters is a new issue to be addressed. They are opportunities for a new question. The answers to those questions will be terrific action steps. Let's give it a try.” Kate was enthusiastic. She wrote, “How to . . . ?” and “In what ways might . . . ?” up on the whiteboard of the conference room.

Comfortable with the process, the group went right to work.

“How might we get the unions on board with the changes?”

“How might we protect against job loss and still realize a gain?”

“In what ways might we redeploy or reuse the canning equipment?”

“How might one-on-one conversations about the change be initiated in the break room?”

“How might the board members support the changes?”

“How might we increase ownership of the change?”

“How will the inevitable discomfort that comes with change be dealt with?”

After a few more challenges were named, Kate began to take the team to the next level. “Which of these questions do all of you think is most important for Elaine's group to address in their presentation of recommendations? Let's do the check mark voting again. Take a marker and put a check near the top three questions Elaine's group needs to address.”

After the vote, there were three questions with five votes each and one with six.

“How did one end up with six votes?” Juan wondered aloud.

“I voted for it twice. It's that important from my point of view,” Damon said with certainty.

“Apparently, everyone agrees. Shall we work on that one?”

“If it's all the same, everyone, I think I'd like to take this back to my team and get them thinking about the answers. There's no need to replicate the same steps here that I'll be doing with my team later today. I get this and I see some issues we didn't address earlier. We're going to have to stop the presses on that report,” Elaine said. “And here I thought I wasn't moving too quickly.”

“You weren’t, Elaine. No team had yet addressed the issue of accepting the changes that new ideas bring. That's why we needed this meeting. I wanted to be sure you each had managing change on your radar and a consistent method of doing it.”

“And now we do.” Damon smiled that room-swallowing grin of his.

“Good,” Kate smiled back, “but let me emphasize one point before we break. The answers to your points of resistance can become action steps in your implementation plan. They may take the form of provocative questions to ask your audience during your report or they may be specific recommendations you can make for implementing your ideas. Just be sure to leverage those assisters in ways that work. You don't want to lose those.”

“You've got to play to your strengths,” Damon said, making a note.

“Questions? Concerns?” asked Kate. “Ready to get busy?”

The bobble heads responded in the affirmative. “Great! If you have some ideas about any of the points of resistance we were just working on, please give them to Elaine as soon as you can. And could I just add one more thing? Thanks. Thanks for being flexible today and making the time for this meeting. And thanks again for being open to different ways of accomplishing things. I'm looking forward to seeing the final reports come together. What is a reasonable time frame for presenting the final version to Tony?” said Kate.

“Next Friday?” asked Damon.

“Can we make it any sooner? I'm sure he'd like to schedule the meeting with Alicia for before the end of next week.” Kate pressured them but knew they would respond well.

“Would Tuesday be all right?” he asked. “Then we'd have another day to make the final changes before showing it to her on Friday?”

“I'd like more editing time. After Tony sees the mountain of stuff before him he's going to ask us to whittle it down. That's one little bit of resistance I see right away,” Amy said knowingly.

“So how might we make it more concise right now?” asked Maya, smiling.

“Nice,” smiled back Amy at the use of the “how might” question. “I've got to be honest, guys. This is the part of the process that's hardest for me. I'm going to need more time to make sure the report is ready before we present it.”

“I know implementing isn't where you like to be, Amy,” Maya said, “but we have got to move on. What is going to help you feel ready to let it go?”

“I think this assisters-resisters thing is going to help. I mean, it will certainly make it stronger and I like to build on things.”

“I'm with you, Amy,” Juan said, “I'm a data guy, not an implementation person. But what helps me is imagining the finish line and knowing I have to get there. Here we know we need to pare down our reports and anticipate how people might react to change. If I focus on that process as developing data, which essentially it is, I'll get it done.”

“I can see that, Juan. But I'm tired. Putting plans together just drains my energy.” Amy was, perhaps for the first time in this process, truly weary. Kate could see her wilt like a parched flower. The group was steeped in the language around the breakthrough process at this point, so she decided to not step in. She wanted to see how they would sort it out before intervening.

“We've all been through parts of this process we haven't liked doing,” Damon said, “with the possible exception of Maya.” Maya took this as a compliment. “What helps me is to refocus on the goal and look for the parts in that stage of the process I do enjoy. I mean, I don't have a lot of energy for implementing either but if I can diverge on steps in the plan I can have some fun.”

“Sounds like you and Juan both find that part of the process you enjoy and then exploit it,” Kate observed.

“I think it's about recognizing where you are and what is really going to be needed,” Maya added.

Amy sighed. They were right. There were parts of the planning process that lent themselves to her particular strengths. She needed to focus on those.

“I can also look for some help within my team,” she thought out loud. “I have a couple analysts who I've had to pull back from implementing a couple of times as we were working on our section. I'm sure they could help.” She looked up, somewhat embarrassed at exposing her weakness, and saw nothing but concerned and supportive teammates. She straightened in her chair; this time she was a flower awakening with the sun. “Sorry, guys. I've got it now. I know how I can get this done. What did we say, by Tuesday next week? I can make that happen.”

Trust the process, Kate thought to herself. Works every time.

“OK. Tuesday it is. We'll be ready.” Damon clapped his hands. “Let's do this!”