Bridges don’t get built when you decide things in your head and impose them on others. They get built when you continually speak to your team members, letting them into the entire process.
Nor do bridges get built when you go into a huddle, get the act done – a product, service or project – and spring the surprise on your peers or superiors. They get built through continuous dialogue, sharing your thoughts and welcoming theirs.
Why do you need the bridge anyway?
Because human nature being what it is, an alienated person thinks you and your department are the enemy or the weakling who underperform and is more ready than usual to attack or discount you.
It’s true for nations, states and communities – it’s true for organizations. The less you interact with the other, the more there is a shared antagonism.
Letting the others in is a painful process that we are happy to avoid. It’s easy to tell ourselves, “He doesn’t understand,” or worse still, “She’s bent on attacking our work”.
But then this kind of thinking creates apprehension in us. And defensiveness.
Your job doesn’t end with conceptualizing and delivering the service or product. It ends only when you carry the rest of the stakeholders, convincing them of the worthiness of the product.
What happens when you don’t?
If you are at the lower levels, you end up the immediate loser – with the danger of the product getting sidelined or ultimately not used. If you are a senior executive, you live with the danger of alienating your own and the other teams.
People need to buy into your idea, your roadmap, your path. If it means working harder to draw analogies, show the numbers and convince them to give it a try, do it. And if you are good at it, you will even make them think it’s their idea.
If after all your efforts, you couldn’t convince them, go back and take a relook at the reasons as objectively as possible. If you still believe you’re right with logical reasons behind the belief, if it’s a big enough event and if it happens consistently, then you are working at the wrong place. Find yourself another job.
Poetry in Life 
The idea selling or convincing the other stakeholders definitely give an edge to the people involved, in achieving the desired results.
However, sometimes it happens that there are some stakeholders who do have their preconceived notions and do not want to bend in any possible way. Any tricks, as how they should be tackled?
and sometimes it also happens that you do not have the desired designation/authority to drive that change, is it ok then to go ahead with the stream always or one should take the stand?
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Hi Varsha,
There are 2 things to it. One is the idea itself and how you put it across. Second is people’s perception of you which is as important as the idea itself – although plenty of times we are guilty of ignoring it.
Project: It’s a good idea to have your facts, figures and analogies ready to convince your audience. Judge the possible questions in advance and prepare your responses. Keep an open mind so that you do not become totally protective and defensive about your project. Accept valid suggestions. It helps maintain your objectivity, enhances your project and importantly, lets the others into the process.
People’s Perception: People need to see you as objective, consistent and fair. If you are already known for these attributes, you are likely to be held in esteem and people are more ready to hear you than otherwise. Even if you come with a clean slate, interacting with a new set of people, you can work and project these attributes. Focus on the audience rather than on pushing your idea through. That’s when people are likely to be ready to follow your logic and set aside preconceived notions either of the project or of your conviction.
The rest is about understanding the audience. What are they likely to question before accepting an idea? What is likely to excite them? Or make them believe in it? This is as true of a hallful of audience as it is of a one person audience.
While we believe that at lower levels there is little scope for driving change, there are pressures of a different kind at the higher levels too. There’s a time to go ahead and there’s a time to give way. And that’s a matter of judgement about the seriousness of the issue, the time frame and persons involved. It is worth taking an in-principle approval subject to metrics and then move with it – People and organizations usually give a certain leeway to work out things your way and don’t rigidly hold to a single point of view in many things. If not, give in good naturedly so that you stand a good chance the next time round. If that’s what it comes to finally, it helps to document the idea objectively and share it, but never get into the “I said so” mode later if you are proven right.
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Was just wondering, why do we always see the rest of the world as a projection of our corporate and professional world? The words, the terms, the idea… all are corporate.
Beyond our work, we are human. We were not born into a profession, we adapted ourself and found our niche to win bred and then further our desires.
we as individuals… are not our designations.
I might be wrong in what i felt and stand corrected.
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Chandrark – You are right in that we exist beyond our work. Regarding the blog itself, it is meant to be my observation of life around me. Sometimes it happens to be the professional world. Other times not.
To share the thought process with you, when I notice something that happened during the day and have a deeper observation about it – the cause and effect and the underlying factors – that’s when it ends up on my blog. Invariably, wherever it begins, I end up seeing a reality within the professional world as well as within the non-professional world. And it’s a struggle to stick to one and not try to balance both because the blog can take just one idea, one theme at a time. And the stronger one has its way usually – the one where it all started. And I let it come, the way it needs to. But the one that really touched me is the post – Experiments in Trust – http://ymadhuri.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/experiments-in-life-learning-to-trust/
Having answered the blog part of the question, I’d like to respond to the other issue you’ve raised – Who we are – in my next post.
Thank you
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