Gaining Acceptance of Your Creative Ideas
Last Tuesday, I was the guest speaker in the graduate counseling class at the College of Education at the University of Memphis. My talk was titled 'How Counseling Education Helped Me Develop People Leadership Skills: The Key to my Enjoying a Successful Career at FedEx.' One of the people skills I discussed was applying Rogers' Person-Centered Theory to 'How to Gain Acceptance of Creative Ideas.'
A few years ago, I got a call from the CFO of a large financial services company, asking to meet her. In our meeting, she shared that she had just added their corporate IT department to her portfolio. She said, "The IT team supports day-to-day operations well and does what I ask. I want them to innovate because, in Financial Services, IT is not just a support function; it is a key part of the company's customer value proposition. Can you work with my senior managers to develop 'Leading for innovation and growth' leadership skills?"
During my one-on-one meetings with the managers, I heard this statement repeatedly: "Madan, I have ideas that would improve our processes and save lots of money, but the Operations people just don't understand." They could not gain acceptance of their ideas from the people responsible for the implementation.?A few years ago, I was invited to speak at Google. I gave them a list of topics to choose from to be sure I would address their needs. The topic they chose was, 'How to Gain Acceptance of Your Ideas.' We want not just 'acceptance' but 'wholehearted acceptance.' It is natural for problems to crop up during implementation – foreseen or not – that the implementation team must address. Wholehearted acceptance of an idea means a commitment to it, and committed people will find a solution when faced with a problem.?
"Only a baby with a wet diaper likes change." - Mike Ullman, former CEO of JC-Penny.
The three principles in Rogers' Person-Centered Theory of Counseling are
-??????? Empathetic understanding (Understanding the client's point of view)
-??????? Congruence (Being a genuine person)
-??????? Unconditional positive regard (Being non-judgmental)
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Expect and Respect Different Perspectives
The people affected by the change you are proposing have different perspectives on the situation because of their knowledge, experience, interests, and areas of responsibility. Those perspectives must be respected. Once the mind is prepared to hear different views, it does not become defensive.??
Listen to understand versus listening to respond.
Typically, when someone talks about his concern about the idea, the presenter thinks about the response and what he will say instead of listening to understand his concern fully. The most profound human need is 'I matter.' That means my concerns matter. When others listen to my concerns, I feel valued.
Speak their language
Every function or department has its own vocabulary, priorities, knowledge, and experience base. It would be best to incorporate the function's language while presenting how your idea will benefit them, make their life easier, and help them achieve their goals.?
Expand the ownership of your idea.
Just think about how excited you would be to ensure the idea is implemented successfully if you were involved in developing it. You expand ownership by engaging people with concerns or reservations about the proposed change in exploring creative solutions to the problems raised. Better yet, identify the people you will need for its implementation and who this idea will impact. "Who ELSE do I need for successful implantation?"
Vice President R&D and OR
4 个月Madan is absolutely correct in that Operations acceptance is imperative to any successful implementation. During my time at Federal Express, operations tended to lean into change. Unfortunately, that’s not true at other organizations. More time was spent on trying to develop operational sponsorship, then the actual invention, development, and implementation. Equal, if not, exciting operations, is the acceptance and sponsorship of the CFO.