Deal with resistance
With any change, there’s going to be resistance, and Donges
welcomes it.
“Not everybody on your team is going to support you,” he
says. “The easy ones to pick off are the ones that are absolutely overt about it, and they tell you they don’t think it’s the right
thing. I celebrate those people. I absolutely see it as a positive
when I see people resisting. I encourage them to openly talk
about it, and I encourage them to state their reasons. That
leads to some good communications.”
The biggest challenge is dealing with those who aren’t so
vocal because you won’t necessarily know who they are.
“The ones that are difficult are the ones that are going covert
on you,” Donges says.
Sometimes, you won’t know they’re resisting until someone
flat out tells you.
“You just have to know you’re going to have that,” he says.
“Don’t try to subvert it. Just move forward. I encourage as
much of the openness about the negativity because it forces
more communication, which ultimately leads to people coming
over to your side.”
When you’re trying to get someone on your side, present it as
a chance for them to make a difference.
“You can look at the change as a crisis … or you can look at it
and say, ‘This is a tremendous opportunity — let’s roll up our
sleeves and get control of what we can take advantage of here
and find the opportunity for the company or division,’” Donges
says. “You have to get a mindset that that’s what you’re doing
and become passionate about it.”
Donges also warns that you have to accept the fact that not
everyone will come to your side; however, if that resister leads
a division or department, then you have to replace him or her.
“Put a new leader in — a change agent who’s going to affect
that — otherwise, you’ll never make any progress if the leadership doesn’t believe it,” he says.
If you’re unsure of whether someone is buying in or not, then
look around and really observe.
“You get feedback,” Donges says. “You get feedback from the
performance of the division of the company. You get feedback
from people who are leaving. You get turnover issues starting
to develop. You get feedback from either their sales or their
customer satisfaction numbers.
“Usually, it’s the data that exposes them, but what kills them
is you see that people are not participating or being part of the
change initiative. It stands out like a sore thumb, but you have
to see that. The data already validates what you probably
already know and what you’re hearing back from people.”
This is particularly important for certain initiatives. For
instance, one change Donges made was to Lane’s technology
system.
“If you look at the big scope of what you’re trying to achieve,
you have to have certain people on board,” he says. “If you’re
going to change your technology platform, you better have
your CIO on board. If he’s not, your initiative is going to fail.
You better understand — is he one of those who’s resisting
this?”
If he is, you have to determine if it’s because he disagrees or
if it’s because he doesn’t understand it.
“If there’s just resistance because he doesn’t understand, then
that goes back to adding clarity everywhere you can in the
communications process about why you’re doing this, what
are the goals, what are the costs associated with the change,
what’s going to happen to people, to computers, what are the
issues that have to be dealt with, and just bring them out.”
HOW TO REACH: Lane Co., (404) 459-6100 or www.lanecompany.com
