When "Just Do It" Won't Work

Greetings, everyone.

What I’m about to share is relevant to all business functions that are inhabited by people.

But for illustration purposes, I’m going to consider a Procurement example (a department which is also inhabited by people, though some of you might dispute this).

Procurement people are lucky.

We have the opportunity to persuade myriad different internal stakeholders, all with their own needs; to move a diverse set of suppliers who are pursuing their own commercial agenda to our way of thinking; not to mention persuasion in the context of a negotiation.

I can almost hear you saying to yourself now, “Yes, Martin. Being in Procurement is a gift indeed”. Am I right? ??

Let’s pluck a random example that might resonate with one or two of you…how to encourage stakeholders to comply with the procurement policy. Ring any bells?

I’m going to call upon a big-hitter in the world of behavioural science to help us: a professor who’s done all the thinking for us and created the “Fogg Behaviour Model”. He’s BJ Fogg PhD – an author and behavioural scientist at Stanford University.

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BJ’s people won’t allow me to share precise details. Instead, they’ve asked me to direct you to the model on his website, here . Take a look and see you in 5 mins.

Welcome back.

So, getting the behaviour we want relies on a combination of the motivation and ability of your stakeholder to do what you’re asking, allied with the prompt that you provide.

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In short, if that right combination isn’t present, prompting them by ethical means (avoiding “so, you wanna sleep with the fishes?”) isn’t going to work.

In our example then, how can we increase the stakeholder’s motivation to comply?

Well, we could;

• If it’s true, inform them that the majority of their peers (social proof influence principle) already comply;
• Explain the benefits of compliance, eg reduced risk, achieve more value from their projects, give an example of how becoming compliant benefitted another department;
• Point out the potential downsides of non-compliance; maybe that’s some kind of sanction, more risk to their department’s project ambitions, or how they might want to avoid featuring in the “compliance violations report”. Oof.

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And what about increasing the stakeholder’s ability to comply?

How about if we made compliance really easy for them? For example;

• Simplifying the policy to as few pages as possible and writing it in language that they’ll understand (definitely avoiding Procurement jargon, acronyms and initialisms);
• Communicate it in ways that are convenient to them. Assuming the preferred communication styles of others, based on your needs, is flawed;
• Reducing the time it takes to become compliant – remove the burden of any unnecessary bureaucracy.

And my advice on prompts would be:

• Initially, seek small, active and incremental commitments from them, such as; opening the policy document, reading it, booking a call with you to talk about it.
• Make the topic a regular agenda item in your review meetings.
• Proactively compliment them on the positive steps they’ve taken and encourage progress to take the next step.

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You’re looking to establish a chain of tiny habits, as BJ puts it. Have fun trying these ideas out.

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As ever, wishing you success in becoming more influential, whether that’s in Procurement or anywhere else.

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WANT MORE? ??

Find my LinkedIn Learning courses here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning/instructors/martin-john

Find my Udemy course here: Martin John | Management Trainer, Speaker, Procurement Specialist | Udemy

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