Introduction
Good managers know that modern employee management requires far more than barking orders. The days of blindly obeying what the boss says are gone forever.
The Choices
Traditionally, there are four basic methods commonly used to gain staff co-operation, have them change their minds or introduce major changes.
- Direct order: this technique can be useful in life or death circumstances where someone simply has to take charge. Under other circumstances, it may have short term or minor success but it won’t gain ongoing staff commitment.
- Threat: there are various forms of threat. In whatever form, threat implies anything from discomfort to severe pain for the employee or some person close to the employee. Threat may have some use under certain circumstances. Like direct order, threat will not result in long term staff commitment.
- Coercion: this means that the manager finds some way of inducing an employee to do something. It usually involves some form of reward or incentive important to the employee. It’s widely used by managers with varying degrees of success. If the reward proves to be sufficiently highly valued by the employee, coercion will continue to be effective. Once the reward or incentive is removed the new behaviour may be in jeopardy.
- Reason or logic: appealing to the “common sense”, “logic”, “reason” or “undeniable fact” can work with some people. The trouble is, they often believe their position, although totally different, is just as logical, reasonable or factual!
Usage
Direct order and threat are most commonly used when one party has unchallenged authority of some sort, whether formal or informal.
Coercion doesn’t require unchallenged authority. But if supported by say, managerial authority it’s more likely to be successful in the workplace.
Reason or logic work well when the employee accepts your reasoning or logic. When the employee doesn’t …
The Heart of The Matter
All the “communications trainers” of past years used this saying “An opinion that someone holds is fact to them”. This statement is as true today as it was fifty years ago. When we try to change what staff do without changing their opinion we handicap ourselves.
Change Opinion: Change The Experience
In addition to the four methods I’ve mentioned, there’s a fifth broad method. Change the experience. This was summed up succinctly by Mark Twain when he said, “When I was a boy of fourteen my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
It’s common to hear statements like “I wouldn’t have believed it until …”, “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes”, “Now that I’ve actually been there”, and many like them.
If you’re middle aged or older you probably understand another truism: “The more you know the more you know you don’t know”. All these statements endorse the value of experience in changing people’s opinions.
Once we change opinions it’s much easier to change behaviour.
Some Options For Managers
To use experience as a vehicle for changing employee opinions
- Use job rotation to broaden both experience and perception.
- Make tedious but important work compulsory for all staff for a certain period each month.
- Gain short term commitment to change. “Try it for a month and we’ll review it”. You must be sincere here. Don’t use this technique as a wedge to force people or team apart.
- Have all managers and senior staff spend at least an hour or so each week in front line customer contact jobs such as answering complaints or taking phone calls.
- Have staff who disagree about some issue work together to create a combined recommendation.
- Arrange short term (2-4 weeks) assignment for staff in areas of the business outside their own.
Remember, that whenever you do take any of these actions, the people involved must do real work not just sit and watch.
Conclusion
If you want staff to do something differently, try to change their opinion or viewpoint to lead them to change their behaviour. “Experience is the best teacher” is another old saying. Perhaps we should pay more attention to the value of experience in helping change employees’ opinions.
