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Last week I showed you how to be a pro and likeable when pushing for change and I showed you key actions that would get you taken seriously. Here are the other two must-do’s if you want to make things happen at the office.
- Be (Somewhat) Patient: Every organization, even the smallest and most agile, has a pace at which they accept change. You just got there and, even if you don’t want to hear it, you have a lot to learn. As you work and grow (and we are talking a few months here, not years), you’ll learn the lingo of the job, become aware of nonobvious networks of people who can help you, and begin to think like your more experienced colleagues who have been at the job longer. While new people can bring fresh ideas, and you should share with your boss any that occur to you, there really is no substitute for experience. Just remember that too much experience can breed arrogance and arrogance can kill. The captain of the doomed cruise liner Titanic had 19 previous high speed crossings of the Atlantic under his belt. This amazing track record may have lulled him into a sense of invulnerability, of thinking that droning slowly through the ice fields was for wussies. To set a speed record, he roared on and killed a LOT of people that night in the dark, icy waters of the North Atlantic. [Note: If you run into an idiot like that guy, I retract what I just told you – – – show him no patience and call his boss about his arrogance, pronto!]
- Promote: In a calm, non-threatening, relaxed voice, tell people about the benefits of your idea. Talk about the benefits much more than the idea itself. The same change-phobic people who resist new ideas seem to have a harder time resisting new benefits. Look for co-conspirators who get excited when they hear about your idea. And when you find them, and here is the hard part, let go of the idea. Let it become their idea too because people will advocate their “own” idea a hundred times more passionately than they will someone else’s idea. With enough persistence you or they may even locate a senior thought leader in your organization who will become the CHAMPION for your idea. And that would probably cinch it!
So enough waiting! Remember last week I gave you a (hopefully hypothetical) scenario in which nobody else seems to share your sense of urgency about making a no-brainer change at the office. We asked you to decide which of four possible courses of action would be best (push like Hell, let your boss handle it, change jobs or push gently). What course of action did you choose?
– If you chose answer “a” you are wrong. As a new person, making this one idea your all-consuming mission in life, before you even understand the job or the work environment, will make you look foolish. And it will absolutely damage your career. – If you chose answer b”” you were also wrong. The idea is not necessarily unworkable or undesirable just because your boss won’t embrace it. Maybe he is an idiot. Don’t just toss the idea to the boss and then abandon it if he won’t push it.
– Did you choose c””? Really? Change jobs? C’mon, get real. The people in your group hardly know you and they have their own ongoing day-to-day crises to wrestle with. Everybody does. You are in more of a rush than that Titanic driver and you saw what happened to him!
– If you chose answer d, you are incredibly astute and intelligent far beyond your years!
Just remember to also add the Four P’s to your bag of tricks for getting ideas implemented and you will be unstoppable. Some might say “unsinkable”.
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