Hearts and minds
In the late nineties I led a change programme for Wates Construction. Half way into the programme Richard asked me “how do we get hearts and minds buy in?” As the Board member responsible for the delivery of the benefits he was keen for all staff to commit to and adopt the new way. At the time my best answer to his question was “I don’t know Richard but let’s keep trying”. I remember thinking “how to get hearts and minds is the million dollar question and if I knew the answer to that I’d be rich”.
Seventeen years later I’m learning that to get people to buy in you have to engage their heads with logic and rationale and their hearts or more accurately their emotions. I am also learning that there is a limited market for engaging emotions in the construction industry so while I am busy I am still not rich.
Here’s an example. About seven years ago I was involved in the early stages of a huge change programme involving many thousands of people world-wide. The head man asked me to help him get Main Board backing for the programme. He said “we need to get the Board behind it hearts and minds as it’s the biggest thing we have ever done, also its going to be tough and expensive” “OK” I said, “so we need to get into their emotions, how they feel about it”. He shot back at me and said “no way Dave, they are very senior, grey haired engineers in suits and they don’t do emotions. You’d better do what you have to do but don’t mention emotions, we could both get sacked”.
John and I had one day with the Board, it was billed as a now or never opportunity for the change programme and the future of the company. In the morning he hit them with fifty Power Point slides to explain the change: what was involved, the urgency, benefits to the company and what was in it for them – loads of logic and rationale, all head stuff, classic change management. It seemed a bit dull to me, passive listening and low energy.
In the afternoon, having heard what they heard, I got them to talk about their concerns, what was exciting for them and what they needed to be confident about the programme. They really got into it, the energy in the room shot up as they unwittingly explored how they felt. We then spent an hour or so developing a plan and they left happy having agreed to the investment and way forward. John was delighted, he had won their backing and without needing to get emotional. I sensed his relief.
How’s that for magic, buy in without emotions or so he thought!
Over the years I have helped many executives get their people on board with their plans. I now know how to do it. The minds part is easy – the plan has to be sensible and logical. The hearts bit is harder, it’s an open process and in case you missed it, it starts with fear, excitement and confidence – the three main emotions associated with commitment.
Looking back, the Wates programme made a big difference and won industry awards though had I known then what I know now it could have been truly transformational.