Connecting dots to accelerate change
Ever see a clear path forward but struggle to get others to see it too? While having a great strategy or initiative is an important ingredient for moving your company forward, engaging others who can help influence adoption and support for your plan is an often underestimated critical success factor for breathing life into your strategy.
In this article, we will explore how to identify who you need to engage and how to personalize your messaging to build coalitions that will help to propel your strategy forward.
I have often heard from leaders, particularly in larger organizations, “If only that department reported to me, I could make this happen,” as though having line management responsibility will magically make execution and adoption easier. When I ask the individual to tell me more about what they believe would be different if they got their wish, the typical responses have to do with possessing greater control over setting the agenda for the individual, team, or business unit(s) in question and the belief that they will be able to compel adoption through directives.
While there is invariably some benefit to having this “line management” control, it certainly is not a guarantee that people will simply fall in line and follow. And to the extent they do, building meaningful engagement to power the engine to achieve optimal results is often overlooked. Furthermore, providing direction in your direct line of responsibility with little regard for activities outside your sphere can potentially derail the overall strategic priorities of the organization.
Applying systems thinking is a powerful way to identify key stakeholders who you will want in your “coalition” to support whatever initiative you are leading. By connecting with the relevant individuals in the right way, you are able to incorporate their fingerprints on your plan and create a sense of shared ownership and vested interest in the success of your initiative. You will also be able to align your respective efforts and perspectives in pursuit of company priorities and avoid unintentionally undermining one another.
What is Systems Thinking?
There are numerous definitions of system(s) thinking in the literature but for the purposes of this article, I am referring to the awareness that a company is comprised of numerous components that interact to create something of value. These components may exist exclusively within an organization or may include additional elements or stakeholders from outside the company such as supply chain vendors, customers, and governmental agencies, to name a few.
Some people refer to systems thinking as considering the “big picture” or pulling up out of the weeds to see the entire landscape. I particularly like the metaphor of ecosystems: interconnected and interactive elements that, when in harmony, create a balanced and thriving environment. Pick whichever resonates most for you and anchor yourself to it when you are creating your implementation plan. What are the components of the ecosystem into which you will be introducing change and how will that impact the whole?
Why Does Systems Thinking Matter?
Understanding how the pieces of a system fit together, interact, and affect each other will help you gain broader perspective and inform the actions you will take to achieve your desired result without unintentionally damaging the health of the overall company. This knowledge brings who you need to engage into focus as you build your change coalition. Connecting with these individuals to learn about their points of view will help you to better anticipate potential challenges so you can plan accordingly to accelerate your timeline to results.
How Do I Translate Systems Thinking into Practical Action?
The practice of translating systems thinking into action may not be a quick process, initially. But with time and repetition, you will become more nimble and agile at navigating the process of identifying and connecting with the right people at the right time to achieve desired results. Here are five ways that I find to be particularly valuable in building the coalitions and momentum that will propel you forward faster.
1. Cultivate Authentic Personal Connections
Being intentional about cultivating your professional relationships is foundational to the other recommendations that follow. While I prefer to learn about someone when neither of us needs something from the other, this may not always be possible. Perhaps you or the leader of the group you need to engage are new to your roles. You can still get to know one another in the context of how you might collaborate on a particular project or initiative you are leading.
Seeing people for who they are and seeking to understand what their personal sense of purpose is that drives them is so important. I cannot think of a circumstance in which an individual does not want to be seen and valued. This level of connection is powerful and will help you to be more effective when approaching others to engage their support when you do need their help.
Part of fostering connection is deeply rooted in emotion and how we relate to the life experiences, challenges, and identities of others. When two people know one another on this level, there is a greater sense of camaraderie that positively influences how we work with one another. For nearly all with whom I have worked and gotten to know over the years, I have made a point of learning about who they are and what they stand for. This helps me see them more holistically as a fellow human being outside the context of our respective titles or job descriptions. Perhaps they are a parent, a caregiver of an aging family member, or someone who enjoys volunteering at the local foodbank but it is the rare occasion when I cannot find at least one thing about the other person to which I can relate.
While you may not always like or see eye-to-eye with all co-workers, having a respectful working relationship, even with the most challenging personalities, makes it easier to collaborate and drive towards your goals. I am less likely to immediately assign negative intent or do something that could be upsetting to someone with whom I feel I can relate to on some personal level. I am also more likely to assign the benefit of the doubt and assume good intent on the part of the other person. (On occasion, even that does not work and there are other paths outside the scope of this article that can be explored to move past derailer personalities.)
2. Take an Organized Approach to Identifying Which Relationships to Activate
Practice systems thinking by following a methodical approach to assessing how various business units, departments, programs, or individuals will be impacted by your idea or plan. For example, start with an organizational functional chart and then go down the list of stakeholders noting what the potential impact may be for each. Once you know who these people are, think about what needs to be true for them to believe in and support what you are trying to accomplish. To assist with this, I will often categorize the stakeholders as follows:
- Direct Impact. Significant, sustained impact on these colleagues’ areas of responsibility
- Indirect Impact. Some episodic impact on these colleagues’ areas of responsibility; it may be beneficial for them to be in the know early to avoid potential surprises later
- Limited Impact. Very little if any involvement but should be informed because the initiative impacts areas for which they oversee and are accountable
After evaluating a vendor proposal to integrate their in-home emergency care services into my organization’s care model, I found that this could help solve problems we were having with inappropriate emergency department utilization, which contributed to avoidable and unnecessary cost to patients and the hospital. Because our leader of retail health services would be directly impacted, it made the most sense to engage her as an operational owner for the new vendor partner relationship. Going down the checklist of functional areas in our ecosystem, we identified several individuals who we needed to engage to achieve lift off:
Ultimately, the initiative was supported and implemented. It continues to serve a valuable role in ensuring the right care at the right time in the right environment, decompressing unnecessary demand on emergency department capacity, improving patient experience, and reducing the overall cost of care.
A methodical impact assessment can be a valuable way to identify who you need to engage with the relevant information to increase the likelihood of a successful plan.
3. Sensitivity to the Objectives of Others
Plowing forward with your plan in a vacuum can create a lot of collateral damage and bruised relationships. Consider how you would feel if a colleague surprised you with an initiative that created challenges and additional work for you and your team. Knowing in advance would have allowed you an opportunity to provide additional insight to reduce friction and allow time for you to prepare your team.
Taking the time to seek consultative input and provide a courtesy “heads up” goes a long way to building the type of relationships that create the support you need to be viewed as a collaborative team player who also knows how to get things done effectively and efficiently. You may also discover potential barriers that you had not considered for which you can now prepare.
Ultimately, the more intentional and explicit you can be about acknowledging the objectives and requirements of others and articulate how you can align your plans with theirs, the more likely you are to succeed in a way in which all boats can rise.
4. Translating into Terms that Resonate with Others
Whereas your strategic plan may make sense to you, reviewing it with other stakeholders will quickly highlight how intuitive it is to others. Often, the relevant details that will resonate most for a finance leader will be different than those for your legal counsel. I often will frame my conversations with various stakeholders as follows:
- Context. Succinctly lay out your intent for the conversation.
- Here is what needs to be done and why.
- Here is why I am coming to you.
- I anticipate this could have a (in)direct impact on what you are working on.
- I need your help to implement.
- I do not expect this to directly impact you but I did not want you to be surprised if you heard about it elsewhere.
- Background. Briefly summarize details relevant to your audience.
- Here are some details that I think may help catch you up to speed.
- What else would be helpful for you to know?
- Discussion. Dialogue to generate mutual understanding and clarity.
- Here are the ways that I think the change could impact you or your area of responsibility.
- Are these the right things to consider?
- What else have I missed?
- Next Steps. Determine what follow-up, if any, is needed.
- Please let me know if you think or hear of any new concerns.
- I will keep you apprised of progress and the expected timing of implementation.
- Let’s reconvene to discuss relevant indicators for your area that we will want to track post-implementation to make sure we can limit and avoid disruption.
5. Creating Shared Purpose
While there may be situations in which the initiative you are implementing may be at odds with certain stakeholders in your system, this can still be a great opportunity for cultivating respectful working relationships.
As an example, I needed to renegotiate a contract with a vendor to generate sustained improvements to my company’s cost structure. My objective was contrary to the vendor’s desire to maximize their revenue. The vendor representatives and I had a pre-existing relationship of trust and I explained that my intent was to improve the overall financial health of our shared relationship so that we could continue to serve our customers and invest in technology and other resources that would help both the vendor and my organization in growing market share. I also explained that it was not my intent to put them in financial jeopardy as that would not serve either of us.
This intent resonated for the vendor and defining this shared purpose set the stage for bringing us around to the same side of the table to generate viable options for achieving our respective and common goals (we were able to come up with a plan to reduce costs to the tune of about $4M, exceeding the original target, and both parties continue to thrive).
Conclusion
Effectively engaging others is a critical success factor for implementing your ideas and initiatives. Applying systems thinking to identify those individuals who are positioned to help you be successful coupled with continuous cultivation of strong, collegial relationships will help you build the types of coalitions that you need to get things done.
For questions or to find out how EverSparq can help, contact info@eversparq.com.
