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Marie Alexander is responsible for all customer success functions, including delivery and installation, consulting and support. She has vast experience in customer success management (CSM), as she is credited with originating the discipline. Marie embraces the idea that customer success is a holistic go-to-market philosophy, with customer advocacy being everyone’s job. Marie is based in Mountain View, California.
Change is difficult because it is behavioral, regardless of the reason. Investing in technologies like Drishti can help manufacturers break through presumed limitations of your processes. But AI-powered solutions can often cause angst if your entire team is not informed or part of the defined solution.
Whether it be new technology or sweeping process change, actually making it happen can be challenging. In this post, we examine why this task can be difficult and offer proven strategies to help smooth the process of change implementation in your operation.
Cognitive dissonance
Change makes each of us uncomfortable. Let’s start by understanding the source of the discomfort. As human beings we want our subconscious belief system to align directly with our reality. There are many examples to explain this desire.
Consider a day you were golfing. You and your buddy are keeping track of the shots, but not totaling the score. You know you are doing well and you are feeling good. After the first nine holes, you tell your friend, “Total up the score and I’ll go grab us a couple of beers.” You get back and your friend says with exuberance, “Man – you shot a 30 on the front nine.” Immediately you calculate this out and realize you have never broken 90. With this thought, you shoot a 60 on the back nine because now you are thinking about it and your subconscious controls your reality.
The theory of cognitive dissonance is one reason why marketing is so effective. Say you have had your car for 10 years. You love this car – no payments, insurance is low, taxes are low – you have even named her Bessie. You happen to see a commercial for a new model. Then you see one on the drive home. Just for fun, you stop one day to take a test drive. Boom! It happens that your subconscious now sees you in the new model. You get in Bessie and see every crack in the upholstery, you hear every rattle, she even smells bad. The reality is, Bessie did not change, your subconscious belief system did.
The distance between your subconscious belief system and reality creates cognitive dissonance. There it is — the motivation for change.
The key to modifying behavior is to get the team to change their belief system before you change their reality. By doing so the change relieves rather than creating the cognitive dissonance.
How can you do that?
Talk to the team.
Listen to the team.
Listen to the team.
Recognize and acknowledge their sensitivities and what will cause their dissonance:
They are no longer gatekeepers of exclusive knowledge.
Their skills may become obsolete.
Their previous good decisions may be questioned or look bad.
Their jobs will change.
They may suddenly be measured or held to account in new ways.
Let them know that there is perhaps no one in the organization that has as much impact as that group of people. They know their station, they know the line. Build their confidence and their value. Help them see themselves as problem solvers, not as a part of management’s problem.
Ask them WHY
Why do you think we do this the way we do? Consider an anecdote about a child who is learning to cook a roast from his mother:
While preparing it, the mother cuts off the edges of the roast. She explains that that’s how they’ve always done it and her mother (the child’s grandmother) explained that it was the key to the recipe.
The child speaks to his grandmother a few days later and brings it up. She confirms the information about the recipe and cutting the edges of the roast off as a key step.
The child is able to visit his great-grandmother in a retirement home a few weeks later. He asks about the roast and cutting off the edges to which she responds,
“No! We cut the edges off because we didn’t have a pan at the time that would fit the whole roast.”
You will learn, they will learn.
Work together to define the goal
What are the goals that this new technology or initiative will help accomplish? What do the workers want to see happen? Here are some ideas: decrease failures, decrease injuries, increase production, improve employee empowerment, increase employee value. Hint: it can definitely be more than one.
Begin measurement of a baseline
This is where a tool like Drishti comes in. Let them know the cameras are to measure the process. Let them help set it up and define the collective knowledge of the standard of work. You will be surprised to find that there may be differences of opinions here.
Get buy-in on the “standard” and then challenge the team to measure against the standard. Let it be almost a game – how close can we get to the standard? Design prizes for the team and even for the individuals who can match it most closely for a shift.
Often just this step will provide a tremendous result and return. But the team doesn’t necessarily view it as just a measurement of them or as big brother; instead, it is a team effort to democratize quality in your organization.
Define changes to be tested and measured
Once the baseline is met and the standard is consistent, let the team suggest improvements and define the method to implement. If their suggestions are not viable, explain why. Really listen first, then explain why. Make the conversation interactive. Let the team see how this new system will increase their value by extending their knowledge through the ability to train on additional stations.
Make the new system part of your daily routine
Post the results in a place where the team can see them. Help the workers own the results and take pride in them. Select members of the team to lead the review of the results and where to take the project next.
Don’t view the change you are implementing as a means to control your organization. Use these tools to empower them. Top down or hands on management smothers your employees and makes them feel belittled, while hands off management leaves them fearful of failure.
Join forces with the workers and use “hands under” management – let them know you are there to catch them if they fall, but you are also there to lift them up. The key is to lead change, not to dictate it. Bring out the best in your team and they will most likely run toward the change rather than away from it.
