Performance Matters

I am training a group of engineers and managers on planning R&D work. And I’m getting nowhere. A manager and his best lead engineer keep attacking every thing I say.  For every example, they have a counter example.  For every method, they are already doing it, only better and different.  They’re telling me that they never really overrun projects.   Not if you take into account the fact that clients changed scope mid-project or management undersold it in the first place.

I’m at my wits end.  But then I see it.  I am up against “the” roadblock to change:

“That’s how we do things we do things around here!”

During a break, I asked the functional manager:  Why are you in this training?  “Management think we don’t know how to do our work”, he said.  “The CEO blames us for overrunning. But in fact, if it was not for us, they’d be doing worse they are.  We’ve been doing this work for 30 years, I think we know how by now”.

People identify with their work.  How we do becomes who we are.  When we have been doing things a certain way for a while, it is the right way.  And doing things the right way makes us right.

Then there is pride.  In a group of 30 engineers, some of them have contributed to how “we do things around here”.  At the time, it solved real problems and produce real results, for which they are rightfully proud. 

But improvement means doing things differently.  “The way things are done around here” will change.  But for those who feel right, or proud, it is felt as a personal attack.  Change says: “do it this way instead”.  But they hear:  “your method is no good.  You’re not right anymore.”  And they react against the change, before it even starts.

It’s the self-talk. This running commentary in our head makes comments and passes judgment on what’s happening to us.   Where a “that’s how we do things around here” mentality exists, the typical self-talk is what I faced in that training.  “We don’t need this.” “We’re not being recognized for what we’ve done.”  A less common, but equally disruptive self-talk is “I can’t do this.”  “I am not good enough.”  They’re asking too much.”

We can’t argue with the self-talk.  But we must realize it exists.  Then we can steer it towards something constructive.  Otherwise, change doesn’t even have a chance to start.

After I spoke with that manager, I asked everybody why they thought they were there.  It turns out others felt like him. So I asked the group to look around.  Who had been selected to participate?

Each department had sent its best people.  Why would they do so? Could it be that they wanted those who would best lead the change?  I proposed a new self-talk:  What can you get out of this?  What can you make your own?  Can you become a champion for some of this?  You’re here because you’re the best at how we do things around here now.  Maybe you can also lead how we’re going to do things around here.

Then I went back to the training. We practiced the new methods.  They were tough on me. They drilled me on how, what why, and can I be sure it will work?  They weren’t about to do this blindly.  After all, they were the best.  But they were now ready to consider change.