Communicate with resisters
After rolling out any major change, you will still need employees to buy in to the finished product.
Inevitably, you are going to run into employees who won’t embrace it. You have to communicate with those resisters to find out what they don’t like about it, because they could have some valid points.
“The first step is listen and try to understand the source of the resistance because there may be some really good ideas that are embedded there that, if you just dismiss it out of hand, you will not benefit from,” he says.
“People are generally trying to do the right thing and are interested in the organization succeeding, so if they have a strong reason that they think this is the wrong thing, I sure would like to understand why that is. Now I may disagree on that, but I’d like to understand what it is because maybe we are about to drive off the cliff and we didn’t even know it, and this person has the great insight to tell us.”
Take the same open-minded approach after the vision has been rolled out that you used during its formation. Chances are, you didn’t get it perfect even if you received a lot of input from all parts of the organization.
“Give it a legitimate consideration and then follow what your best instincts are as to th
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direction to take,” he says. “If, after understanding it, you still disagree that that approach is wrong or that resistance is not well-founded, then I think you need to take some time to try to explain it to the areas of resistance as to why you think going this way is better.
“In many cases, people will then understand or give it a shot at least. They may not be the leader of the charge, but they may at least give it a shot to see how it works. If it’s working elsewhere in the organization, most people will come along with it.”
Find a common ground with the resister and explain to him or her that everyone involved wants what is best for the organization, and if plan A doesn’t work, you will try plan B.
“Try to get some buy-in from the stand point of, ‘Aren’t we all trying to shoot for the same objective here? Yes, we may have different ways, but let’s just find mutual ground that we are all trying to get to the same place,’” he says.
McMullen doesn’t have a hard and fast rule on how long to give someone to adjust.
“You use your judgment, but I think one thing I learned back in a prior life is you also have to keep in mind that you are responsible for the success of the entire enterprise,” McMullen says. “If there is some part of the enterprise that is really getting in the way of the organization moving forward, then it’s your responsibility to deal with that.”
But you should work to get the person on board because firing someone might cause more problems and take more time than trying to work with them.
“You have conversations like that before you come to a decision that we have to part ways,” he says. “Because if the person has other things to contribute to the organization, you don’t want to simply part ways because there’s a different point of view on this particular thing if there is a chance that you can get them on board with the idea.”
However, if an employee is really holding up the rest of the organization, you may have to let that person go.
“That’s the tough things that leaders have to do,” he says. “But I don’t think you start there. I don’t think you want to have a culture where ‘Joe, over there, disagreed with the path we were taking, so he’s no longer with us.’ That will be the last time you’ll get a dissenting view on something.”
McMullen says the One OMNOVA concept is still a work in progress because there is always room for improvement. But the sooner you can get people on board, the sooner you can work out the kinks and get the maximum out of the change.
“We spent enough time to get the concept right, and then we rolled it out and we will continue to improve it going forward,” he says. “Our view is, perfect is the enemy of speed. So the faster we can get it out there and work on it and make improvements from real-life situations and experiences the better, as opposed to spending months and months and months polishing it up before we kind of roll it out to the organization.”
And remember to keep spreading the message at every turn.
“Like a lot of things, you can never overcommunicate, and this is one of them,” he says. “Try to be clear on what the key concepts are. Try to simplify, and I don’t think you can repeat yourself too many times.
“I think continuing to stay focused on the same message is critical to getting that across to the organization. It takes more than once. It’s just human nature that they will not understand and embrace something by just one iteration.”
How to reach: OMNOVA Solutions Inc., (330) 869-4200 or www.omnova.com