We tried that before, it will never work.

In assisting a Twitter connection get beyond a work obstacle where a colleague continues to say “we tried that before, it will never work.” Interestingly, in reading them and sending them off, I realized that the dialogue might be valuable to a broader audience as well.

I share with you a slightly abridged copy of the email I sent him:

Goodness, I have both been a victim of the line….but also embarrassed to admit that I probably have used the line once or twice. I have been very aware this past year of not saying “no, can’t be done”, but in asking “why?” to understand and then trying to come back with “how would we do it?” for win/win.

But back to your question of what do I do when someone says, “we tried that before, it will never work.” Simply, I am driven to prove that it will work. Not to prove the other wrong, but heck a challenge is a challenge. How do I do prove something will work? I begin to ask questions to learn why the naysayer believes it can’t work. I then try to use the stool (people – process – technology) and the inevitable truth in CHANGE to build the case of why it might work now and what it will take to change the “might” to “will”. A few times, I have found out through this approach that it really won’t work. Ackward? No. And I do thank the naysayer for helping me draw this conclusion.

Now, some of the naysayers are “all knowing” and I believe their egos won’t allow even logic to break down their resolve. This isn’t a bad thing, I have learned a great deal from people who dig their heels in deep and am appreciative. But, in those cases, I take conversations off line and slowing begin to chip away at the wall of “it will never work” by painting a picture of why it should work and how we (not I) will help the company (not me) if we worked together to make “it” a reality. If you paint the shared value proposition, it is hard for the naysayer to shoot it down (note: I didn’t say impossible, because I have seen all types. But believe that everyone is inherently good inside and wants to do the right thing for themselves and for the company).

Today, with my kids coughing, sneezing and covered with phlegm, I was able to do some reading and did search the web for articles for how to deal with naysayers and obstructionists. In my search, I came across these two Harvard Business Review article. Extremely timely as one was published last Thursday and the other in September.

Rule #1: You must never get sucked into the black hole of "what happened 5 years ago." Read how not to here: http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter/2010/10/getting-past-the-but-we-alread.html
My Margin Note: Are there items that you have put on the table and received a no because we have tried it before? If you are convicted, try – try again. Send them back to the naysayer for reconsideration and ask for counsel from your manager.

Rule #2: Understand the unfair attack strategies that naysayers and obfuscators deploy to derail you. Read about inviting them here: http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter/2010/09/need-buy-in-invite-the-lions-i.html
My Margin Note: Are you struggling with naysayers? When in doubt, escalate. You don’t need to struggle alone and certainly hitting the brick wall over and over again will only frustrate you (as well as leave you bloodied). When struggling with naysayers – don’t go sideways to peers, but up to your management for another perspective. While peers can offer great feedback and new plans of attack, it might also lead to venting and triangulation which will kill your credibility and potentially lead you down another rabbit hole. Go instead UP, but be ready to clearly present your struggle without finger pointing and with a focus on resolve for execution. Is your management not a good fit? Then go to an internal mentor to bounce concept off of. As long as the person is UP and able to assist in pushing idea forward or clearly communicating why the idea might not work.

Hope this helps you navigate through what feels like are some shark infested political waters. If you would like to chat IM me and we can schedule some time during soccer this weekend.

Innovation

Yesterday my calendar pop-up alerted me of an important date in history … the creation of the first ATM. Specifically, the first ATM (albeit not on the network) was introduced to the world via a patent (GB1329964) filed September 1969 (and granted in 1973) by the Burroughs Corporation. Within a few minutes of the pop up, I had a conversation with an architect on the topic of Green IT and was inspired by this individual’s enthusiasm on the topic, his out of the box thinking, and by his motivation to show others WHAT is possible if each one of us alters a few of our behaviors. The two in concert made me think about innovation as related to our core competencies and Extraordinary Leader.

I started to look up the Guiding Principles and found one encouraging team members to “embrace empowerment and improvement”. Smells like innovation, don’t you think?

Next, I started to think about innovation and StrengthsFinders? Three themes are notorious innovators:

• Activators can make things happen by turning thoughts into action.
• Futuristic are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.
• Ideation people are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Innovation and our inner animal? Who can forget that “the sky is the limit” is a key theme for the owls among us. Innovation is also core to the beaver and fox specifically as it relates to “anything is possible, as long as we can execute on it”.

From the book, Extraordinary Leader, some of the behaviors demonstrated for innovation include:

•  Consistently generate creative, resourceful solutions to problems.
• Constructively challenge the usual approach to doing things, and find new and better ways to do the job.
• Champion ingenuity at all levels.
• Generate creative solutions by bringing together the most talented people.
• Work to improve new ideas rather than discourage them.
• Come up with creative, resourceful solutions to problems.
• Create a culture of innovation and learning that drives individual development.
• Provide support and encouragement to others when they attempt to innovate – even when they fail.
• Integrate ideas and inputs from different sources to find innovative solutions.
• Build on other people’s suggestions and ideas.  (Doing so often leads to new approaches and improvements.)

© 2010 Zenger Folkman.  All rights reserved.

Here are some ideas that other leaders identified on how to improve effectiveness in the Innovates competency.

• Every week ask each one of your colleagues to give you an idea on how to look at things differently.
• Conduct brainstorming lunches with teams using market trends.
• Understand the current state of the activity/task and document current and future benchmarks.
• Provide brainstorming and whiteboard sessions to identify options (pros/cons) to meet an objective or reinvent a process.
• Connect with leaders and other resources (websites, journals, etc.) to see current activity and future trends.
• Conduct periodic meetings with partners to challenge what we know.
• Find a team or meeting that’s focused on taking risks; get an invitation to participate.
• As you make innovation a focus, share your successes with your management or offer up at team members for shared learning.

Thank you for letting me share!

~Stacy

Building Relationships

A couple years back, I sent out the book Extraordinary Leader by authors John Zenger and Joseph Folkman to my team with a message about leaving their imprint on the workplace (see post Leaving Your Legacy 11/8/2008). I also explained that the company we work for had adopted the book and associated curriculum in the new leadership model which would assist leaders from around the company develop their full leadership potential.

Within the book, Zenger and Folkman discuss the behaviors of building and maintaining solid relationships. I thought this especially fitting considering the importance of connecting inside and outside the workplace.

From the book, some example of the behaviors demonstrated for builds relationships include:

• Be approachable and friendly.
• Establish rapport easily.
• Be trusted by work group members.
• Handle difficult situations cnstructively and tactfully
• Deal effectively with people in order to get work accomplished
• Balance concern for productivity and results with sensitivity for employees' needs or problems
• Maintain and utilize relationships outside the company through which resources or information can be generated

Below are ideas captured from various leaders on how to improve effectiveness in the building relationships while demonstrating the core competencies of Collaborates and Relationship Savvy.

• Take advantage of informal times to share with key business partners about you and the work our team does.
• Get to know and understand the needs of your business partners well.
• Remember how we all fit together for the common purpose.
• Share the same vision of collaboration with each other and their clients.
• Build trust and establish an effective feedback process.
• Don’t react to feedback defensively. Take a moment to reflect on the words spoken.
• Positive Optimism: Find the positive in someone prior to a meeting/interaction and focus on it.
• Make an effort to learn about your peers and teams.
• Give a personal thank you to peers and partners; Meet to discuss your appreciation.
• Ask partners what support is needed and deliver on their expectations.
• Translate a technical problem and solution into English that everyone can understand.
• Chart out 15-30 minute discussions with customers on your schedule.
• Make networking part of our culture and prioritize it by blocking time for this function.
• Seek a specific project opportunity to partner with a colleague you don’t know well.

As you make building relationships a focus, I would love to hear about your successes with. Email them to me at stacy@ouncecattery.com or stacyth@yahoo.com.

Thank you for letting me share!
~Stacy