Zoom in on resistance
Driving change isn’t just about securing buy-in but also recognizing who’s on board and who needs a more intimate nudge.
For Fimiano, it’s an easy distinction to make.
“The key to getting on the same page is a lot of rigorous debate,” he says. “If there isn’t somebody challenging and asking questions and being the devil’s advocate, then you’re not going to get there.”
“The people that are on board will ask the toughest questions,” he says. “They want to make sure that they understand it. ‘What about this? Did you think about this? How are we going to do this?’ They’re trying to figure out how they’re going to execute this plan.”
The employees who aren’t buying in to the change usually stay quiet during meetings. Those are the ones Fimiano approaches one-on-one.
“It’s not going to be as bad as you think,” Fimiano told them. “Let’s just take this one step at a time. You don’t try to eat this three-year goal in one gulp. Every three months, let’s try to improve.”
The employees who had the biggest changes to make were generally the most reluctant. The division leader of Southland’s Southern California region — a location that relied on plan-and-spec work for about 85 percent of its business — was one of the most noticeably upset. He feared the change would put him out of the job completely.
That’s where you need to step in. Get involved to make the change a team effort rather than survival of the fittest.
“It’s into frequency and into details and into time spent face to face with a lot of the people that have concerns,” Fimiano says. “Show them with actual circumstances and actual statistics that they can make this change and that you’ll help them make it. [Tell them], ‘You’re not going to do it alone. We’re not just going to say do it. We’ll get you help to make this change.’”
To bring them aboard, you have to make the goal achievable. Help them break the endpoint into more tangible steps.
“You don’t try to climb the mountain in one day,” Fimiano says. “You have base camps. We actually use the term base camp, where you set out small goals along the way. If
we
’re 15 percent design-build today, in three months we would like to be 22 percent. If you see that progress, it stimulates more progress.”