Q. How do you get people to
buy in to your vision?
You have to assume that
not everybody is on the same
page. If you think everybody
is on the same page at the
same time, you are going to
be surprised.
You have to start from the
perspective that most people
aren’t on the same page. If
you don’t hold that sense of
tentativeness, you’ve got to
push it all the time.
So, I’m a great believer in kind of management by
walking around. It’s really
the individual conversation.
We have a program here that
we started about a year ago
that we call ‘Breakfast with
Bill.’
Seventy-five employees is
not a lot, but once a month,
at least, we have breakfast
where the HR department
picks, at random, people
from the organization. They
could be vice presidents,
they could be truck drivers
or anywhere in between, and
(they) go off to have breakfast with me. It’s a chance
for them to get to know
other people that work for
the company that they may
not have daily interaction
with.
But, it’s also kind of an
environment where we position as, ‘This is no-holds-barred. Ask me anything you
want.’ Now, what’s happened
over time is that their colleagues know these things
are happening, so, when
‘John’ was told he is going to
be in this breakfast meeting
with Bill, his colleagues start
to give him suggestions on
what to ask me.
Then, when he comes back,
they kind of debrief him.
‘Well, OK, did you ask him,
and what did he say?’ That’s
far richer than a kind of an
employee newsletter because
an employee newsletter is,
‘We set the agenda. We tell
them what we think they
want to know, and we tell
them that.’ But, giving them
the opportunity in a safe
environment to ask us tough
questions — that is very
effective at getting the word
out.
HOW TO REACH: Philabundance, (215) 339-0900 or www.philabundance.org
