Ellen had just been asked to assume the plant manager role at one of the lowest-performing factories in the company. She decided that the factory needed a restart, but she also knew that coming in from the outside would make change difficult. She wanted to meet with every employee in small groups to convince them of the need for change.
She thought back to one of her professors who told her class that “No one changes their beliefs or attitudes based on information they receive. People only change when they persuade themselves to listen to their own thoughts.”
What Ellen decided to do was create five scenarios of factories like the one she would be managing. When she met with the employee groups, she asked them what they would do if they were in charge in each of the scenarios. They gave her their ideas. After the discussion had concluded, she summarized the key points from the discussion on a flip chart.
Then she said, “Here’s what I want to do as your plant manager.” She turned on her computer and showed a slide of her plans. They were identical to what the employees had said in response to the five scenarios.
This revelation was representative of every employee group. One other thing was also the same with each group. One of the employees would blurt out: “We’ve been telling those corporate fools what we What Ellen realized was that people don’t like to be told how to think. In fact, they will often find reasons to challenge those who try to tell them what they need to do. To change behavior, we need to lead people through a self-persuasion process. That’s what Ellen did with the scenarios.
We’ve known this for a long time, but still, we are told how to think throughout our lives. Educators do that, as do medical professionals. Consultants and lawyers thrive on telling us how we should think. The result is a push-back from those being told. Ellen was a rarity in our society today. She believed in the wisdom of others, and she knew how to draw out that wisdom. She knew she couldn’t be the persuader, but she could create situations where her team could persuade themselves. She knew she would never succeed unless she could become a facilitator of self-persuasion. All of us could learn from Ellen.
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“The best way to bring about change is to help others discover for themselves the need for change.”–Unknown