How to influence change among long-term employees:

Use as a training tool: Present the situation below to the group and have them brainstorm how they would best handle the situation. Then share the Outcome Focus answer and see how it relates or differs from solutions the group found.

Situation: Dear Anne, How can I influence change among long-term employees? I want them to put themselves in the shoes of the customer instead of just seeing things from their perspective.

Other Person's Perspective:

They have been a part of your company for years. They understand that corporate culture and currently their behavior is tolerated and may even be reinforced at your company. There is currently no incentive for them to change the way they interact with each other or the customer so why would they change?

Best Handled:

Whether you like it or not, know it or not, your company has a culture that these groups of employees have all seen, felt and been a part of for a long time. To ignore that culture and expect them to change when the current culture is more comfortable to them is a losing battle.

You must first look at what culture you want your corporation to have and then what conditions exist that enhance or detract from that culture. All conditions that detract from that culture you MUST get rid of.

So first you must let the employees know that the rules of the game have changed and how this change will benefit them and the customers. Take responsibility if you have not held people accountable in the past for behavior that doesn't fit the culture that you want.

It might go something like this, "As I look at where our company is going I see that we have reached a new level for how we need to interact with our customers to provide exceptional service. In the past we may have been able to just fax a customer, leave a message and if they didn't respond we would say it was their responsibility to get a hold of us. And that seemed to be okay."

"That is no longer true. Our business has moved to a maturity level where there is a lot of competition out there. I now look at how we conducted some of our business in the last few years and if I was our customer, I might even say we were arrogant or aloof. I know that is the last description any of us would use to describe ourselves but in this situation we have to look through our customer's eyes and not ours. I for one have been guilty of the old way of thinking."

"I want all of us to start thinking more from our customer's perspective rather than ours. The phone isn't an interruption in our work, it is the reason we are here. So that means we will each be accountable for making sure that we get a hold of the customer and handle the situation within 24 hours."

"This new standard will require changes for all of us. I welcome open dialogue about how to make this change easily and to make it tangible to the customer. I want the customer to be "wow'd" by us at each and every interaction."

"I will be holding each of us accountable and making sure that we meet the 24 hour time frame and that we constantly look out for the customer's needs. In the past I know I haven't always done that and I want to be clear that this time I will be watching and riding this as it is too important to our business."

"I would like to open the floor to your ideas on things we can do that will WOW the customer and show them how important they are to us."

Then open the floor, write their ideas down, and keep the energy focused on the positive. If someone tries to joke this new approach off you need to be clear that every person will be accountable for this new process and that you will immediately address any person that doesn't follow this procedure.

You are best to drive the hard line up front BEFORE any one tries to weasel past it. This will build a higher trust and less intense feelings of frustration with employees.

Anne's Aha:

Quotable Quotes "The talk you hear about adapting to change is not only stupid, it's dangerous. The only way you can manage change is to create it." - Peter Drucker