Inspire your people
Any idea that seeks to change behavior has to begin with a vision. Your employees need to have a clear idea of what you are looking to do and then be able to find something in your plan that they can grasp on to.
“You have to create an inspiring vision of why you’re all coming together for some common economic purpose,” Chapman says. “Our vision is to create a global something that can pay people fairly, treat them superbly and create value for all stakeholders in the process. We can share that with people, and we can say, ‘Now let’s go do it.’”
Chapman likens the process to a religious leader seeking to gather disciples.
“You want to gather people around you in an environment where they feel their ideas and input are of value,” Chapman says. “Then you need to have a way of sharing your initial vision and saying, ‘This is a vision that I have, but I want to engage you all in making it more powerful because I value your input.’ When people feel like they are involved in the process, it’s uplifting to those people. They will go the last mile with you to help make it happen because they have had a chance to share their gifts and be appreciated for sharing their gifts.”
While you may be thinking big with your vision, you have to start small with your effort to sell it.
“You have to create disciples and get people in the boat with you,” Chapman says. “Pick a core group of people that you begin the process with that can spread this over time. It’s a long, firm leadership philosophy. You look at Toyota and companies that have embraced lean manufacturing and you say, ‘Oh, I want that.’ Well, you can’t just go out and buy a kit and think you’re going to be a lean company.”
You need to realize that you’re never going to reach everyone, no matter how inspiring your leadership is. Chapman says he simply began with people in his company who he thought would be receptive to his idea.
“I just thought about people who I thought were the kind of people that could help us develop it,” Chapman says. “It wasn’t all senior people. It was the secretary from one division. It was the president of another division. It was a production executive. It was just a group of people that I thought could help me develop it. They become disciples. They spread the beliefs. You try to change one person at a time. They become believers and disciples and the more they share it, the more other people embrace it.”
Once you have a core group of people that believes in your plan, you can begin that effort to sell it to the rest of the company.
“It’s continuous learning,” Chapman says. “We ask people for their input so we are constantly benchmarking and sharing it and continuously improving it and refining it. We have to live those principles of continuous improvement.”
Chapman says it really comes down to adopting a philosophy that your people bring a diverse set of skills to the table. It’s your job to figure out how best to draw out those skills.
“There’s an expression, and I don’t know who said it, but it goes, ‘We paid people for their hands for years and they would have given us their heads and hearts if we just knew how to ask,’” Chapman says. “We have never learned to ask people for their heads and hearts. We’ve just simply paid them for their hands. That is at the core of what we have come to realize.”
You need to show your people that you’re interested in anything they can do to better themselves and, in the process, better your organization.
“If you work for a company that you don’t feel cares about and doesn’t draw out your passion and your abilities, how could you possibly share your full potential with that company?” Chapman says. “It’s just a job. You’re going to do what’s expected.”
Chapman doesn’t believe that’s enough.
“People are craving to be part of something meaningful and to share their life in a meaningful way,” Chapman says. “Why can’t a job be meaningful? Why can’t the role we play in business allow us to fulfill our dreams? Why can’t it allo
w us to share our gifts? Because we never taught people how to do that.”
