Crucial
Conversations: Managing Setbacks
By Kerry Patterson and Eric Patten
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There’s nothing like sitting back at the end of a
consulting project and basking in the glory of a major success.
Not everyone believed you would succeed. It took a tremendous
amount of work, you struggled to make mid-course corrections,
and key players did not quickly jump on board; but in the
end, you accomplished more than you projected.
But what about those mid-course corrections? If you had
to fix something along the way that must mean something
went wrong. And if that’s the case, how did the client
react? Did the CEO sit down with you over a pleasant lunch
and brainstorm possible course corrections? Did internal
and external consultants view the setback as an important
data point in helping craft changes to the intervention?
Or, did the HR and other internal consultants threaten to
pull the contract? Did your client see the setback as evidence
that your consulting team was incompetent, untrustworthy,
and soon-to-be unemployed?
How your client responds to setbacks is largely dependant
on what you’ve done to clarify expectations. At VitalSmarts,
we learned this the hard way. During our early days of consulting
we would sit down with our client, lay out the plan, and
kick off the project. We never discussed possible problems.
Later, when we did run into unanticipated roadblocks, barriers,
or setbacks, we’d act just as surprised as the client
and do our best to get back on track.
We don’t do that any more. Not after one project
started to head south and the client freaked out. Feeling
blindsided and violated, the client threatened to pull the
plug—over a common problem that was easily corrected.
Now, we take a very different approach. We talk upfront
about what we refer to as a learning environment. No matter
the content of your project, you must always model an important
process: bumping into problems, learning, correcting, adding
this knowledge to your shared data base, and moving on.
That’s what smart companies do. They create a learning
environment.
When talking about a project, it’s important to first
outline what a learning environment is and what it isn’t
because organizations have differing attitudes toward learning
on-the-job. Not all organizations eagerly embrace the error
part of trial-and-error. In fact, in some companies, any
deviation is seen as a fatal flaw. Problems are no different
than mistakes and mistakes are career limiting. Organizations
with this disposition routinely stifle new ideas and fail
to make necessary and rapid changes. They’re also
likely to need consultants for this very reason. Unfortunately,
the leaders of these rather staid companies have no tolerance
for consultants who don’t offer rigid and perfect
plans.
On the other hand, there are companies out there that work
within new technologies, are constantly experimenting, and
understand the importance of developing a careful plan,
testing it on a small sample, gathering data, making changes,
and moving on.
This raises a big question: how do you work in the first
type of company—one that is mired in bureaucracy that
considers experimentation a reckless violation of tried-and-true
protocol? How do you work with clients who don’t value
or cultivate a learning environment? After all, you will
run into setbacks and if you fail to give a heads-up about
likely problems, you are history. On the other hand, if
you suggest the possibility of encountering a blip along
the way, you may never get hired.
Now, let’s put this challenge in perspective. As
a consultant, your job is most likely not to focus
on creating a learning environment that redefines the organization—you
are there for other reasons. Nevertheless, creating and
modeling at least a limited learning environment will be
helpful to the scope of any project.
Here are a few of the techniques we’ve found effective
over the years for managing expectations by creating a healthy
learning environment. These techniques can be grouped into
three categories: Laying the Groundwork, Pre-empting the
Problem, and Managing Stories.
Laying the Groundwork
Make it safe—in sickness and in health
Clarify upfront that you are committed to the organization
and that you will do your very best work. In order to do
so, you will need to partner with the organization and therefore
support each other through the process. This means you’ll
be supportive in both sickness and in health. That is, at
the first sign of problems neither party will cut and run.
You’re in it for the long haul. This needs to be a
collaborative relationship where both parties feel safe
and where risks can be taken without undo recrimination.
If this safety does not exist, the project will start on
unsteady footing with little hope for success.
Set Expectations
Make sure the client is aware that there will be setbacks.
“We’ll do our best to implement processes and
procedures that have been successful elsewhere, nevertheless,
these types of projects seldom go seamlessly. Each company
is unique and requires adjustments—there will be bumps.
We need to see bumps as opportunities to learn and grow
and not as evidence of incompetence. That’s an important
distinction. We’ll also want to make sure that we
anticipate and plan for as many of these bumps as we can
and that we have a plan of action in place for bumps we
don’t anticipate.”
Identify Best Practices
Next, ask for organizational best practices. “I’m
sure you’ve run into problems before. If you could,
tell me about a time when you ran a project that encountered
a major setback. How did management and others react? What
techniques did you find useful for dealing with these setbacks?
How can I effectively deal with challenges in this company
in a way that leads to fixing the problem rather than fixing
the blame?”
Pre-Empting the Problem
Limit the risk by limiting the scope
Another way to pre-empt setbacks is to limit the scope
of the riskier components of your project. Set up an “experimental”
group to test risky components before rolling them out to
the whole company. If there are setbacks, you can adjust
without compromising the project.
Compress the time between benchmarks
You can also manage setbacks by compressing the time between
benchmarks. Benchmarks signal results and if you space benchmarks
more closely together, you will catch setbacks early on.
Also, when benchmarks are broadly spaced, people grow anxious
from the lack of results. By spacing benchmarks closer together,
you can better manage expectations, demonstrate early success,
or catch problems earlier.
Managing Stories
The words “setback,” “problem,”
and “issue” all have negative connotations.
When people hear a word like “setback” they
tell themselves a story based on their past experience and
their general disposition. These stories range from, “The
world is coming to an end,” to “No problem.
We’ll deal with it later.” You could try to
change the vernacular, but ultimately any word you introduce
will take on the same negative connotation as the word it’s
replacing—introducing new words doesn’t usually
work.
A better way to approach the issue is to manage the stories
driving the interpretation of the setback. “Yes, I
can see how that’s a problem. The thing I don’t
see yet is the extent of the problem. Before we
jump to any conclusions, let’s plug that data into
the plan and see what—if anything—might need
to change. Does that work for you?”
Speak tentatively. Don’t overreact. Don’t commit
to action until you are confident that you really understand
the setback and the solution. Be the voice of reason. Once
again, setbacks need to be viewed as data points. They provide
us with more information and allow us to adjust our tactics.
When you can get the organizations you work with to view
problems in that light, you will be well on your way to
developing a healthy learning environment and that’s
something everyone can live with—in sickness and in
health.
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Kerry Patterson coauthored the New York Times bestsellers
Crucial
Conversations and Crucial
Confrontations. He is an acclaimed keynote
speaker, consultant, and chief development officer of VitalSmarts.
Patterson has designed and implemented major corporate change
initiatives for the past twenty-five years. Find out more
at www.vitalsmarts.com.
Eric Patten is a senior consultant for VitalSmarts,
an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance.
At VitalSmarts he is developing a series of products to
enhance Crucial Conversations Training, a powerful tool
for improving organizational effectiveness, building teams,
and enriching relationships.
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