In a recent response entitled "Say what you want" Ian Saunders asks:
Q. "How to overcome resistance from sponsors, champions and clients - before
you really even start?"
Q. "How to get clients to understand the importance of the people 'stuff'
in change programmes?"
Q. "Why are senior managers so willing to spend millions on technology and
very little on the people who have to make it work?"
In my work, I get the opportunity to spend considerable time with "pure"
educators - people oriented people who expend their energies developing
teaching curriculum, needs assessment methodology, and technological
wizardry, then delivering their teaching materials individually and in
groups. They (and frequently I) draw much of their energy from the
classroom experience - seeing individuals and groups actively engaged in
learning. It is an inceredible rush when you suddenly see the "lights come
on" in a previously dark vessel.
What "they" don't like to do is to quantify the expected benefits of their
work or to be held accountable for achieving the anticipated results. "We
can lead a horse to water - but he may drown before he drinks." "They"
can't be held responsible for the student's refusal to either learn or
apply the learning. "They" almost never follow the learners back into the
work environment to determine how or even if the new knowledge is
translated into action and applied to achieving business results. Once
"they" have imparted knowledge - "they" are done. Application of the
knowledge is someone else's responsibility.
I believe it is this very attitude that contributes to the reluctant
acceptance of the business benefits of strong people practices. Business
people willingly invest when they can calculate with confidence their
expected return. This is a straightforward process on capital investment
decisions (technology, new equipment, even advertising) where the ROI can
be determined. This can also be a failry straightforward process on human
investments when practitioners accept and commit to their accountability
for achieving results, then follow the learners back into the workplace to
observe how knowledge is applied.
The secret to overcoming resistance is clear communication of the benefits
in terms and measures that are understood and believed by those we need to
support us.
When people practitioners learn to talk the language of business
(generally financial beneifts and costs) and gain confidence through
accountability and delivery - this soft, fuzzy stuff will be elevated to
the science of human performance. Then it will be accepted and actively
supported.
Gerald D. Burch
VPMEP Team Leader, PO Box 73, Harrisonburg, VA 22801
540 568 8787 (work), 540 568 8786 (fax), 540 476 1730 (cell)
gdburch@aol.com, http://www.vpmep.org, http://burch.homepage.com
"Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages. Just because
the rains descend, and the winds blow, we cannot afford to build on shifting
sands." ~Henry Ward Beecher~
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