It’s not unusual for someone coming into a new job to be tasked with “cleaning-up” problems and turning things around, improving processes and efficiency, maybe even firing people. It’s almost as if they are invited to see others as problems, not people, from the outset. That’s not exactly a recipe for earning trust and integrating into a new work environment. One of my clients recently began a job knowing that his predecessor had failed at designing new systems. He was told from the beginning that he would be facing tough, wary stakeholders. He also understood that meeting his work objectives would result in letting people go.
Ouch.
Still he was just starting at the company. He wasn’t hired to fire people. He was hired to design a new product.
He had the challenging task of genuinelybuilding trust and connection with people while trying to understand what was going on and what/who needed to be adjusted, changed, possibly eliminated. The stakeholders he was to work with knew his ultimate task; they knew that they would likely become obsolete if he were to succeed.
Imagine being in the position of the stakeholders… do you know the experience of knowing you’re facing an end, whether it’s to a project or a role or a relationship? Can you recall how it feels when a new supervisor or team member comes in challenging your status, explicitly invited to assess your longtime efforts? Can you feel the stress of being seen as a problem or inefficient, outdated, challenging…?
I rankle at the idea of being seen as inefficient, outdated, a problem. And I’ve been there. I recall being let go because the funds used for my labor-intensive role was better spent on technological efficiencies. I have also been on the up-power side. I remember being a manager asked to address the “problem” of staff whose skills were outdated. Rather than refresh or train, the plan was to let them go.
No one wants to be seen as a problem. No one wants to be fixed or finessed. You know what I mean – smiling on one side and holding a pink slip in the other. It’s also quite disconcerting to be the fixer or firer telling someone that they are not needed or worse – inadequate or failing to meet the mark.
Back to my client in his new role: what did he do knowing that his actions might well be the impetus for people losing their jobs??
He decided to STOP SEEING PROBLEMS. He decided to STOP LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM. He decided to focus on LEARNING and OBSERVING
Remember that he was new so it was really important that he earn trust and build relationships, in addition to figuring out how to design products to meet new standards.
From a starting point that the stakeholders were not a problem, he focused on HOW he communicated with them. These were his mantras:
Acknowledge others.
Mirror what was said.
Focus on what’s there.
Take time to learn.
Invite their expertise.
Slow way down.
Identify needs together.
Generate solutions together.
What’s brilliant about what he did is he related to people as people appreciating their experience and expertise. He acknowledged that they had a stake in the work they had been doing. He looked to them for information and input.
When we see people as the problem, we often try to fix them. We have a hard time detaching from a position of conflict or making them wrong. In that place, we don’t genuinely listen to someone. We don’t want to acknowledge because we are trying to maintain our case against them.
You may be asking if this story has a happy ending. What I know right now is that it has a win of sorts. My client and the stakeholders are working together to come up with solutions for the product design. The stakeholders feel valued and seen by my client. In turn, it may be possible that with a new product design, the stakeholders are moved to different areas in the company. But I don’t know that for sure.
What I do know is that value and recognition have been integral to the conversation and design process. That’s a major victory in the context of situations laden with conflict and ripe for distrust.