Surround the primadonnas with enthusiasts and beat their scepticism with results.About 10 years ago, I was working on a project to change the working practices and workflow of some of the most highly skilled technical support engineers in the world. The goal was to help them solve customer problems faster. We were doing this by equipping them to think differently about how they approached problems and how to make best use of the excellent capabilities that they had. We were warned, however, that there would be a hard core of technology experts that we would not be able to touch. I was told that this group of technology primadonnas were too cynical, thinking themselves already too expert and too experienced, to take on new ways of thinking and working.
We had neither the time nor the resources to give this group special attention (and quite frankly, we didn't really want to reward their truculence), but we had to make sure that we dealt with them as part of the programme. In the end, we turned the vast majority of this group into ambassadors for the new way of working. How?
First of all, we made sure that the change wasn't led by the consultants (because if consultants lead the change, when they've gone you'll find that the change was temporary). We made sure instead that the project was led by the company's most respected customer support engineers (of those who were prepared to give it a go).
This group's first job was to test out the new ways of working and validate that they were indeed "...going to work round here". The second thing we did was to take this group's recommendations about where in the workflow the new thinking had to be visible. The next thing we did was redesign the work environment, around these key points, to ensure that the new way of working was supported. But the charm, (at least as far as the primadonnas were concerned) was that we trained at the cynics last.
In other words, we set up the conditions to maximise success, then gave the opportunity to succeed first to those who were prepared to give it a go. Before very long, success stories were appearing all over the organisation, and the cynics were surrounded by enthusiastic advocates equipped with evidence that proved that the new way of working was better.
I have implemented many change programmes since and wherever I go, I remember one of the most valuable lessons that I learned on this project: you're going to find cynics no matter where you are. Properly harnessed, enthusiasm can beat them. Just make sure you train them last.
-- Mike
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