RESISTANCE-PROOF YOUR IDEAS. [PART I] There are a number of reasons many great ideas never amount to more than “great ideas.” Insufficient expertise, resources, finances and time obviously can reasonably stifle creativity. However, internal resistance is a particularly dispiriting excuse.
Most employees these days perceive themselves to be stretched thin as is. The prospect of being tasked with more work, with which they do not associate any personal recognition or financial benefits, is less than motivating.
Though your workforce may not know of Peter Drucker’s tongue-in-cheek warning that “Every great idea eventually deteriorates into work,” their intuition about such things obliges consideration.Several fundamental strategies can preempt this push-back and even encourage buy-in:
1. Involve operational staff in the planningprocess. Their on-the-ground perspective offers a reality check on available resources not always recognized by management. Then, use operational staff to champion the project among coworkers.
2. Explain the purpose, with relatable context. If it is simply to increase revenue, then communicate how this translates to “opportunity” in terms of future growth, more jobs and job security. If the operational benefits apply to marketing potential, explain this connection. For new initiatives to be promoted with conviction to consumers, they need to be understood and embraced internally first.
3. Prioritize the implementation. Respectfully, assume workers are busy and that they do not have a block of time set aside to take on new projects. (See Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.) If now a highest priority, explain why and how other tasks can be rearranged to accommodate the new focus.
With Eskaton and a number of other aging services providers across the country, operations and marketing teams are conspiring on creative strategies to build census — immediately and for years to come.
[NEXT POST, PART II — JULY 24] Of Eskaton’s multiple initiatives, effective Planning, Purpose and Priority facilitate their implementation. While, others, still in various stages of development, require more resistance-proofing.
