Diane knew, going in, that where she was going had never been voted anyone’s “50 Best Places to Work” – but she wasn’t quite prepared for the mess she found when she got there. Her experience doing training and implementation of network software for warehouse systems had given her this opportunity to earn “pretty big” money taking on an old, static cold storage company’s “do or die” attempt to transition into the modern age. So off she went from the suburbs of Portland, ME to a warehouse a half mile from a cloverleaf interchange on U.S. 80 in north central Pennsylvania.
The old fashioned, paper-based record keeping was barely the half of it. The tiny office staff did have computers – but mostly just to do word processing. And actually, some of the oldest staff members hardly knew what Word was, let alone a spreadsheet, and preferred typing envelopes on a 25-year-old Selectric typewriter.
And out in the warehouse itself, well …it wasn’t the archaic storage and retrieval process that was the problem, so much as the semi-Neanderthal, old-boy work culture that had taken hold out there. When she’d walked around introducing herself to the line troops, inside and on the loading docks, the attitude was barely civil, and she actually found herself feeling a little threatened by a couple of extra-surly fork-lift operators who made no bones about what they thought of still another attempt to change the way things worked.
This was a first for her – having to manage people who conveyed an element of physical intimidation. She wasn’t sure how to proceed and, truthfully, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted her immediate boss to know the situation – at least, not yet.
By the time she called me, she’d already spent more time alone in her office – ostensibly “tweaking” the network software before the rollout – than was wise.
Over the course of five weeks, we had six sessions focusing on some basics.
Diane needed to resist being isolated. She agreed that she needed to walk around regularly without fail, letting them know that she was always going to be around. She wasn’t the greatest schmoozer anyway, but the negative reception she’d received had dented her confidence in her ability to connect with a primarily male, blue collar group.
I suggested she be curious, and engage them by asking questions about the history of the place, what still works well, etc. That’s when she learned about the “innovative” refrigeration system that was still going strong after 20 years. There was a sense of pride in that system, even on the part of folks who knew nothing about cooling technology. The opportunity to talk positively about themselves and the company helped defuse some of the negativity. A few employees loosened up.
Being classy in the face of resistance is the way to go, and almost always works – for the long haul. In Diane’s case, her workplace was kind of lost in a time warp, extra backward, so she needed to give it extra time to adjust to her, and the changes she was bringing with her.
Yes, rudeness and non-cooperation are performance problems that ultimately need to be taken head on. Being slow to take offense is good, being unwilling to enforce minimally decent workplace behavior isn’t.
I advised Diane to not get caught up in the old Darwinian pissing contest; the good old boys would sense immediately if she was vulnerable to that. They may take a run at you, but most of them will stop when they see you’re not “biting.” Diane needed to keep focused on what she was there to do – implementing the new systems and processes – and see it as an ongoing dynamic: start implementing, then start learning: perceive what happens as “information” coming toward you, to be understood, re-worked, and re-framed as fluid problems to be managed or solved.
It isn’t rocket science or magic. The key is to keep your grip on yourself, manage what you’re saying to yourself. Show confidence, patience, validate employee concerns, admit mistakes, but stay focused and keep moving forward.
As so often happens, our coaching needed to end before the whole story played out. (I consider it a success when a client says, “Thank you for your help, I’ll take it from here.”)
Six months later a little email “thank you” note from Diane essentially said, “They now have touch-screens on the warehouse floor, laser printers and Excel in the front office, and they’re on a fiber optic line running direct to the owners in Pittsburgh. It wasn’t all fun, but I’m not leaving with my tail between my legs. Thanks.”
