Seek out input
When it came to forming a plan for change, O’Hara started by seeking out ideas. Some of the best feedback you can get doesn’t come from the people in the corporate office but rather those out in the field with the closest ties to your customers.
“The lower and midlevel employees are closest to the customers,” O’Hara says. “From that perspective, they may see something with the customer, and if the organization is flawed, by the time it gets up to us, it’s been managed, and we’ve hit our numbers. It’s not that they don’t care about the profitability of the company. Their rewards are tied to the customer. Their emotional gratification is from satisfying the customer.
“Speaking to those employees who are not handcuffed by the day-to-day Wall Street expectations of profitability or bank requirements, or what have you, gives you a purer feel for what’s happening around the base of the business.”
When talking to employees, visit them in a setting where they can be relaxed. Reinforce the idea that you really want their input and need it in order to make your plan work.
In the boardroom setting, your best bet is often to just listen.
“We have the field report on their operations first,” O’Hara says.
“They are reporting on the major issues going on in their local environment. There is an exchange of questions and answers and understanding. Is it a sourcing issue? Is it a product procurement issue? Is there a customer delivery issue going on? What are customers asking for and asking about?”
Either way, you’re creating dialogue.
“By having it start from the lower levels of the field first, we open up the dialogue to getting a better source of information instead of just listening to ourselves talk,” O’Hara says.
When you talk to people about making a big change, don’t frame it as a change that you want to make. Make it clear that their participation and abilities will be needed to make the change a success.
“It’s never my plan; it’s our plan,” O’Hara says. “If it’s our plan to begin with, we all have a vested interest in its success or an understanding why it’s not successful. There are no recriminations because it was our plan.”
When people do speak up, give them recognition and openly thank them for doing so.
“Make sure you reward people that speak up and take chances versus people that sit back and don’t contribute,” O’Hara says. “In our organization, people will find if they sit back and wait for people to take all the risks, those are the people that wind up getting promoted. Not the people sitting back, the people who took the risks.”
You need to take advantage of the people who really like to talk and contribute and engage them often. The hope is that when others see your interest in hearing feedback, they will begin to open up, as well.
“So if there is one individual on the team that is not pulling their weight in terms of that openness, and one of our values is open, honest and always, then hopefully there are enough team members surrounding that person to flush it out,” O’Hara says.
When you feel you’ve collected enough feedback, it’s time to see who is with you.
“We had a draft day,” O’Hara says. “We said, ‘Who fits in this new organization and where do they fit?’ At the end of the draft day, we had hopefully most of the people in the right positions at the right time and some people who no longer fit in the organization.”
