I went through all my client projects from over the years, met with people to talk about them, and summarized the stories. I’ve decided to blog the “nutshell summaries” of these observations, so am leaving here to go to managementismissing.com

Hope to see some of you there!

Best regards,

Laurie Ford

I recently interviewed for a director position in a hospital in which the position was newly created and reports to someone (Linda) I had once worked for in my current organization.  Since I had never held a director’s position before, I expected people at the hospital where I was interviewing would be understandably curious about my relationship with Linda and how it would affect them. 

I had one interview with a panel of 14 front line managers.  I knew that this would be the most difficult of the interviews, as they have difficult positions and are typically pulled between front line staff and administration.  I assumed that my presence would evoke doubt and worry because of my relationship with Linda.  I felt that acknowledging this up front might alleviate some of the anxiety the panel felt as well as the anxiety I felt in the interview process.  Even though I had never officially met any of these individuals before, I felt that having a closure conversation and was appropriate.  The following is a synopsis of how it went:

Panel Member:  What do you think some of your initial challenges will be?

Me: Well, of course getting to know the system.  But I imagine that my first challenge will be perceptual.

Panel Member:  What do you mean by that? 

Me:  Well, I know from the interview process that you all have had a year of great changes.  I know that Linda is relatively new, and has brought in many new people.  I know the position I applied for is new to the organization.  I also know that you have read my CV, I am sure it took you about 3 seconds to realize that I worked for Linda in the past.  So here I am, in a new position to the organization that was created by my old boss.  I am sure that I will be viewed as Linda’s boy.

Panel: Laughter

Me:  By the way you guys responded to that, I can tell that many of you have thought that.  I get it.  That is okay.  You will not trust me at first, nor should you.  It is not because I am not trustworthy; it is that you don’t know me yet.  This is where the perceptual challenge comes in.  It will be up to me to prove myself to you through my actions that I am worthy of this position and this job. 

Panel Member: Thank you for saying that.  You are very astute.  I will admit that I came here with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because that is EXCATLY what I thought.  Now I can let go of it.  This will be fine, and you will be fine.  That is all I needed to know.

The conversation was much easier from there.  The interview was more conversational than adversarial.  We shared ideas about projects we were all working on in our environments, and the managers were able to open up to me more.  Even though I had never met these people, I think opening with the closure conversation was important.  The result was that the interview was much easier and I feel more confident in building new relationships with these managers.  More importantly, since the tension was taken out of the initial meeting, I was able to learn more about the organization and the team dynamics so that I could come to a more informed employment decision.

I used this pattern of conversation in other interviews during the process and each time I got similar results. 

Incidentally, I was offered the job. 

Although Jason only used one of the 4-A’s of a closure conversation (he used acknowledgement), it was all he needed at this point.  By acknowledging his relationship with Linda could be an issue and that he needed to earn their trust, Jason diffused a potential obstacle to his having an effective working relationship with the 14 front line managers.  He also made it clear that he was aware of what they were probably thinking and that he was not going to run away from it or pretend it didn’t exist or matter.  By being straight and acknowledging what was there, Jason made it easier for people to interact with him.

Good job Jason!

We recently had a manager, let’s call her Lisa, ask “How do I motivate the people on my team to care about the project we have?”  Interesting question, but it is misdirected.  Rather than focusing on their motivation, we told Lisa to focus on her conversations.

Motives and Motivation

Managers and social scientists have long been interested in why people do what they do.  Why, for example, are some people willing to work late on a project when others aren’t?  Why do some people seem to work hard and others don’t?

The popular explanation for these differences is that people have different motives and motivations.  Motives are believed to be internal conditions that cause a person to act in a particular way.  People are already “motivated” or “not motivated” to behave in particular ways, and we often find ourselves trying to figure out how to change a person who is “not motivated” into someone who is “motivated”.

Lisa believed the people on her team didn’t care enough about the project.  She wanted to change their motivation so they would care more about the project and thus work harder and in more effective ways for its success.

The trouble is, we can’t see motives.  If they exist at all, they are internal and hidden from our view.  Lisa couldn’t see inside the people on her team to know for sure whether they “cared” or not.  She could only see the work they did and the ways they interacted with her and with each other. The truth is that Lisa doesn’t know anything about their insides, only about their external actions and the visible results they are – or are not – producing.

Lisa would be better off giving up the attempt to change their motivations and just asking herself, “What can I do to alter their actions and the results they produce?”

Lisa and Her Boss

The best chance you have of getting people more engaged in your project is to change the type of conversations you are having with them.

We asked Lisa, “Have you ever worked on a project you didn’t want to do?”

“Of course”, she replied.

“Would it be fair to say, you weren’t motivated to do it, but you did it anyway?”

“Yes, absolutely!  In fact, I once worked on a project I hated, but I still did it.”

“Did you care about that project?”

“No, not at all.  I just wanted it over.”

“If you didn’t care, why did you do it?”

Lisa thought for a minute and replied, “Two reasons.  First, it was important to my boss, whom I respected considerably.  And second, because I had told him I would do it.”

We asked, “How did you know the project was important to him?”

“He told me all about the project and how it related to the new product development strategy the company was undertaking. He said it was critical to our future success.  And then he looked me in the eye and asked me if I would help make the project a success.  How could I say no?”

Notice that Lisa’s boss didn’t try to do anything about her motivation.  He didn’t try to get her to care – in fact, Lisa didn’t even like the project, though her boss never knew that.

Her boss took the time to tell her how important the project was to him and to the company.  He had an initiative conversation in which he created a future that was important. Then he asked her to participate in making that future real.

All You’ve Got Are Conversations

Lisa realized that she had never really explained the importance of the project. She had never really talked to her team about why this particular project mattered, how it could be accomplished, or who else would be involved.  She had reviewed the basic project plan as it had been given to her.

“I see that I just presented the plan to them,” Lisa said, “and I didn’t really go over the way it connected to the new corporate push to use social media for reaching customers in new ways. They were in the big meeting in the auditorium about the change in corporate strategies, and I assumed they would make the connection. So when I announced the project, I told them the schedule and assignments and just assumed they would do their jobs.”

“This project might look like a boring research project, but it is part of a bigger three-year plan to create new customer communications and new product lines. I never really had a conversation with them to be sure they were on board with that. When they didn’t seem to step up, I figured the problem was with them – they didn’t care.  I now see it may be more about how I talked to them – or didn’t.”

Conversations are your only tool for getting other people to do things.  Those conversations might impact people’s motivation – we don’t know about that.  We do know that it is easy to change your conversations. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.

[This article reprinted with permission from The Great Managing Newsletter]

____________________________________________

Jeffrey and Laurie