Imagine being in Sydney, you’ve just returned from training a team in Hong Kong, only to get a call from the Asia VP.
“We need you in Shanghai tomorrow, or we might lose our biggest customer”.
That phone call represented $45Million USD a year. More than that. It potentially represented the jobs of more than 1000 people. A lot of those people are still my friends.
A job in the improvement field, like mine, is about helping solve problems. I think we all get that.
What sometimes gets overlooked it what those problems represent. What the consequence is to not solving that problem.
If we focus on the problem, what we see is the problem.
To find a solution you need to look at options that represent opportunities for change. And change is hard for many people. For people to embrace a change they need to see it as two things:
- Possible and
- Desirable
What makes a change desirable can be considered in many ways, but it’s always personal. We as individuals must see that it’s a good thing for us to support it.
Possible, though? That’s subtly more difficult. Possible in terms of physically capable of the change is usually easy. It usually is just a matter of magic, or probably engineering – they’re largely interchangeable!
But possible in terms of your cultural environment? That’s tough!
A change to the way you do things might upset the great apple cart of those who have built their empire on “knowledge is power”. Those people who can “call a mate” if something isn’t quite going to plan and get it fixed. Those people who have set themselves up as the guru on the hill.
You know those people.
Those people will oppose the change because they don’t see it as desirable. Why would they? Their value is based on the current way. A new way would tear that all down, right?
No.
It won’t. It only changes what they think their value is. Not the reality. Those people have experience to offer. They can teach so much to the new generation. If we make that safe to do so and support those people. Help them see the real value is in sharing their knowledge. Not holding it tight. To help others build from the strong foundation that their knowledge represents. We could not achieve new great things and change without that base.
When Isaac Newton said “If I have been able to see further than others it is only because I stood on the shoulders of giants” we heard that. And then proceeded not to learn from that! The giants of today still exist.
They are the academics and business leaders, yes.
But they are just as much the shift foreman, the mechanic, the administration clerk, the executive assistant. They are the people who we all know that we go to when things are a problem. When we need a solution.
You see, I found a solution in Shanghai. I did it by talking with the people on the production line. With the engineers, with the sales people, with the lab technicians.
We found a new opportunity that saved months in the supply chain, and added millions to the customer and the company.
Those millions came from the people who saw sharing of knowledge as a way to increase benefit. They came despite those who stood their ground, said it couldn’t be done, and that we should not change.
When we work together to find a solution, worry less about the specific tool and process that we must follow, we remove the barriers to change for the better.
And hopefully we offer “those people” a new way of seeing that their real value comes from being a big part of that change.
