How Does Your Team React to a New Person?
I 've mentioned here, I think, that I was in The Netherlands earlier in June for almost a week. I was invited to speak at an annual symposium for hospitals around the country that was put on by St. Elisabeth Hospital (regular readers of the blog).
I'm very thankful to them for hosting me, not just the symposium, but the great discussions and gemba time in different parts of the facility. It was very thought provoking and I have many items I'd like to blog about - either what they are doing (which I'll blog about with their permission) or general thoughts that were inspired by the discussions.
One discussion that I thought was really interesting:
Let's say you have a new person on your team -- a new employee right out of school, somebody who has transferred into the department or unit, or somebody from another organization.
This new person asks a question about the process or makes a suggestion about doing things a different way....
How does your team or individuals react?
- Thank you, tell me more...
- We've always done it that way...
Which response is more likely? Which response is going to lead to more organizational success? Which approach is going to lead to more input from the new employee?
The answers probably seem obvious... so the real question is how do we get people to be open minded to ideas, questions, and suggestions and not just shut people out with the "we've always done it that way" response?
Is it a good gauge of a "lean culture" that more people (or all people) would respond the first way, not the second?
Have you been successful in shifting the culture and the primary response from #2 to #1? If so, how did you do it? If not, what gets in the way?
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Labels: Culture, Healthcare, Netherlands
by Mark Graban - Permalink
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We still have a lot of "We've always done it that way..."
One way to change that is to let people who rate high on the following attributes on the bus (hiring - Jim Collins analogy):
*objectivity
*curiosity
*creativity
*internal locus of control
If you have these things as personality traits or drives or whatever then you naturally want to hear more and can evaluate it better.
I think in the case of people already on the bus it is a matter of focusing some amount of effort on the leaders (de jure and informal ones - de facto ones if you will) and get them thinking in a new way by teaching and showing (in parallel and under the radar). This means getting some things done via five why's and going to see the actual thing in the actual place with the leader(s) that you are trying to convert or 'convince' as quakers say. The reason that I recommend five why's and gemba is that - ideally - the real problem recognition will be simple enough (and therefore undeniable - perhaps epiphanic - once the leader deals with the natural level of cognitive dissonance) that it can lead to paradigm change. I also recommend these because they work a lot of the time.
If you have leaders who all have a high level of intellectual arrogance (often found in the absence of curiosity, creativity, and objectivity) then let me know what you have done that has been successful.
Note: 'informal leaders' as used in the above model don't (necessarily)show up on the org chart and finding them can be a big part of the battle.
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