Here are some guidelines for holding a planning meeting.

Follow these Guidelines for Planning Meetings

Many of the tools for getting people involved have a few elements in common. Here is a tip sheet of things to consider when you plan a meeting that focuses on change. (These are pretty good ideas to use in other meetings as well.)

• Invite representatives from all groups that have a stake in the outcome of this change. When possible, invite everyone. If that’s not possible, make sure all groups and interests are represented.
• Consider using a planning group made up of many diverse interests to help you plan the meeting.
• Pre-assign seats so that each table of eight to ten people is a maximum mixture of the whole. Every table should be a microcosm of the entire organization. Each table should include various departments, interests, and levels of the organization.
• Allow time for conversation. Don’t try to speed things up.
• Emphasize conversation, not presentation. Except for an introductory presentation that sets the stage (and even that might not be necessary), don’t make speeches.
• Before getting reactions to a presentation, make sure people are clear about what has just been presented. Ask for questions of clarification before you get people’s reactions. If you miss this step, people will be responding from their assumption about what they think they heard, rather than responding to the actual idea.
• Invite resistance. The Real Time Strategic Change and Whole Scale Change processes use a simple technique. After a proposal is made, each table is asked to respond to three questions: What makes you glad (about this proposal)? What makes you mad? What would you add (or change)?
• Tell people how you will use this information. And then keep your promises. If you say you’ll get back to them within three days, don’t miss that deadline.
• Stay awake. Meeting agendas are merely roadmaps. Actual driving conditions will vary. If it seems clear that people are resistant to something, take time to explore what’s in their hearts and on their minds. I have seen good meetings disintegrate simply because the leaders felt compelled to get through the agenda in spite of what was occurring in front of them.
• Be honest. If some items are not negotiable, tell people, and tell them why. Don’t pretend that everything is open for discussion if that’s not the case. You may take some heat for this, but that’s far better than misleading people.

© 2000 Rick Maurer. Adapted from Building Capacity for Change Source Book (Maurer & Assoicates)

Shouldn’t people just suck it up and go along? Makes no difference what you think they should do. The truth is: they won’t go along. They need to be engaged. Your communication plan needs to address three areas:

1. Information. (That’s where the traditional communications plan comes in.)
2. Employee Engagement. People need to be able to influence changes that affect them. Oh, and talking at people for an hour and then asking, “Are there any questions?” is not all-that-engaging. The best communication comes when people are in the room helping shape thinking and making decisions.
3. Trust. The people you are communicating with need to believe that you (or who you represent) can be counted on to act in a trustworthy fashion. If you wander into Honest Ed’s Car Lot, no amount of information about a choice car, or engagement in selecting the options you want will convince most of us to buy. They need to trust Honest Ed. And with a name like Honest Ed, he’s going to have a tough time getting our attention. My humble suggestion: don’t be the Honest Ed of your organization.

I started my time with them by asking half the group of 400 to think about a job that they had loved. It could be their current job or a part-time job they had way back in college.  Then list what made it such a great job.

I asked the other half the room to think about a job that they hated. (To illustrate my point, I told them about a good friend who once described his job as, “an acid bath.”)  Then I asked them to list what made the job so bad.

The people who described jobs they hated came up with a ghastly list. No need to depress you, so I won’t list those items here.

But the other group identified things like: the work mattered. I knew what to do. My work was respected. My boss knew when to lead and when to get out of the way.  I worked with great people. I had the tools to do the work.

Perhaps we should alert the media! I can picture cub reporter, Jimmy Olson, running into Perry White’s office yelling, “Boss, I’ve got a story here that will break this town wide open. Here’s what really motivates people.”  OK, so I know this is not late-breaking news. We’ve known that these are the things that motivate and engage people for decades, well before the term employee engagement ever entered our vocabulary.  And yet, that list holds the key, if we only looked down and saw that it had been in our hands all along.

My advice to my client was turn to what you know and use that as a guide. You don’t need a new incentive program, or motivational speakers, slogans, or posters of kittens grasping branches extolling you to “hang in there, baby.”  Let your experience be your guide when it comes to employee engagement

- Rick

Depending on the study you read, the failure rate of ERP projects can be somewhere between 60 and 90 percent. Although recent studies put the failure rate nearer 60 percent, but still. . .

Those are dreadful numbers. But, the good news is — it doesn’t have to be that way.

The 3 Big Myths about ERP

Getting the Right Software Makes All the Difference.

Yes, you should make sure that the software and the vendor can deliver what you need. But, getting the right software doesn’t address the biggest reason why ERP efforts fail.  ERP scares people. And when people are afraid, they resist change.

It’s All Technical

A study of CIOs found that biggest reason for failure of IT projects was resistance to change. Technical know-how doesn’t address those issues. In fact, when people are overloaded with data, they tune out. Since they can’t follow the endless PowerPoint presentations, they begin to make up stories about what is really going on. And those stories seldom work in your favor.

Because We Need ERP, People Will Go Along

It’s easy to assume that people will go along once they realize how important this new enterprise-wide software system will be. And maybe they will, but only after you’ve seen costs on the project soar and deadlines get trashed.

The common denominator in all of those myths is people.  ERP projects tend to be so big, so expensive, and so driven by technical details and plans, that it is easy to forget people. You need people to help plan the changes that will affect them. (Too often major IT projects have a castor oil feel about them. “Drink it, it’s good for you.” Adults, just like kids, don’t like that.)

What It Takes (Beyond technical Know-How)

After you’ve found the right software for you – one that fits your unique organizational needs and found a vendor who has technical know-how as well as a proven track record for helping you plan and implement – then you need to:

Lead the Change

You can’t delegate the leadership of something as massive as ERP. (You can delegate tasks, but you can’t delegate enthusiasm and commitment.) Everyone needs to know that the most senior leaders are behind this effort. They need to know that ERP is a top priority. And that takes more than just giving a couple of speeches. It requires that leaders protect people’s time to plan and implement the new software system. (ERP is too big to assume people will be able to do it justice while continuing all the other tasks that fill their schedules.) Leaders need to ensure that people have the resources they need to get the job done. And, everyone must believe that your organization’s leaders are the ones in charge – not the consultants.

Address Resistance Before It Ever Becomes Resistance

Most leaders can pretty accurately predict if various stakeholders will support or oppose a change like ERP. But, sadly, they ignore what they know, and move ahead hoping that this time things will be different.

You need to know the extent to which your stakeholders are going to support or resist ERP.  There are three reasons why people could resist you. They might be thinking:

• I don’t get it
• I don’t like it
• I don’t like you

Maybe they don’t understand what this is all about, they are afraid of what it might do to them, and/or they don’t think that you’ve got what it takes to lead this change well. Any of these can kill a project.

The good news is that each of these is on a sliding scale. If they don’t get it, then find ways so that they do understand what you are talking about. If they are afraid of what this change might bring, then address those concerns openly and search for ways to engage people in the process. And if they don’t have trust and confidence in you, then you must find ways to demonstrate that you are worthy of their trust.

A warning:  The most common way of addressing these types of issues is to create a PowerPoint presentation. That might work if they don’t get it, but slides are a terrible way to try to get people engaged or build their trust in you.  Avoid these mind-numbing events.

Building support can be difficult. It may even take precious time. But, without support from stakeholders, you put your project at serious risk of failing. I wish you well.

© 2011 Rick Maurer. Rick is an adviser to leaders in large organizations on ways to build support and commitment to change. For ideas on ways to build support for ERP (as well as other major changes) take a look at Rick’s book, Beyond the Wall of Resistance (Bard Press 2010). www.rickmaurer.com

Digging Deep: Why People Support Your Brilliant Ideas and Why They Resist

My buddy Jacquie McLemore and I are conducting a free 60-minute Podcast through the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland on May 2. The topic: influencing others at work. We will explore the importance of support and resistance when we try to get others interested in our “brilliant” ideas. I hope you’ll take a look. If you like what you see, please join us. And then pass the word. Thanks.

You can also download the description of the program from this link as well.

Rick

Sue Shellenbarger wrote a fine article, Making Kids Work on Goals for the The Wall Street Journal (3/9/11).

Even though this article focuses on the power of asking children to set somewhat challenging 9but not out-of-sight) goals can make a huge difference in performance.  I think you’ll see the mistakes that we make in organizations when it comes to setting goals and her article may give you some ideas on what to do encourage good goal setting.

BTW, working at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland is a labor of love. I make no money for my work there. Even though I am using this blog to promote something, its not my mortgage payment that motivates me, it is the quality of what you can learn at the Institute.  Influence. Action. Change!™

I hope you’ll take a look. – Rick