A few weeks ago my out of office message told anyone that sent me an email that I was unavailable because I was having my wisdom teeth removed. The plan was to go in and have all of them yanked out at the same time – to just be done with it. I’m an advocate of change, but this wasn’t the kind of change I’m usually excited about. So my out of office was simple and somewhere along the lines of:
“HEY, THEY’RE JUST TEETH…
Apologies, but I’m out of the office today because I’m having my wisdom teeth removed. (yes, all of them.)”
Nothing terribly fancy per-say, but it was when I received a comment from a peer about the message (because it had made her laugh) that I took pause and looked at what I had written in a slightly different light. Initially, she had thought I was referring to the common phrase you hear from people that are struggling to get information or push for change in a less than accommodating environment. Something along the lines of, “Getting that done was like pulling teeth!” Of course, I’ve had my share of challenges when pushing forward and have certainly used the phrase, but it was in that moment that I was reminded of something…
The process of pulling teeth (aka: making difficult or scary change happen) is typically easier on the person that’s doing the pulling than the poor sucker in the chair!
I can look back on both my professional and personal life and easily pull from experience a handful of memories related to change management that had me frustrated with another person or team. Each time because they were being “less than cooperative” as it related to anything ranging from updating a system or process to implementing an out of the box solution or just exploring new territory within the field of recruitment. In each scenario I was the person pushing hard for something different to happen – and in each scenario I was feeling like it was me that was doing all of the work and that the other party was just “digging in”… Getting them to weigh in, pony up, or get engaged was like pulling teeth.
My working history since I ending my tour in the Army has always included process improvement and a push for change on some level. I’ve had the good fortune to know and work with some incredible people in reference to their ability to both inspire and manage change. And with the last 6 years of my life spent literally obsessing over the evolution of an industry and technology, I’ve taken away a few bullets that it never hurts to share (or review.)
Change is hard – because it’s new.
If you’re someone that’s creating ideas and pitching them to your teams or leadership, that’s great. But it takes much more than just talking up a great idea that you’re passionate about to be successful. Often you need to work hard to gain buy-in on new programs or practices and should make a practice of presenting research to support your idea or be prepared to manage a pilot program to gain ground with people that need to ‘touch’ and ‘feel’ something to believe in it.Change is overwhelming – because it’s more.
I don’t know anyone in the recruiting business that isn’t already overworked and overwhelmed. Approaching someone with a 100mph sales pitch without taking this into account can be detrimental to the success of establishing the results you may be looking to achieve. Even if someone thinks your idea is great and says as much, current workloads with a dash of skepticism may create the impression that the idea is just going to be more work rather than something that will make work easier. It’s good to remember what you’re trying to accomplish and share how it can ease the existing workload or make someone more productive.Change is challenging – because it’s unknown.
When improving practices it can be easy to forget that there are people that make those things work in their current state. People that, in many instances, have spent years becoming proficient at something that they might just enjoy doing. Hoisting a new practice or even job description on them can be scary and result in seeds of fear that rapidly grow into unmanageable forests of doubt and frustration. Being a “change agent” isn’t enough. To effectively make change like this happen you’ve got to be a motivator – and follow through on clearly shared deliverables and commitments.
If you’ve been successfully making new things happen or pushing new ideas to execution for any amount of time, you’ve likely learned these (and more important) lessons along the way. In the spirit of being completely honest and given what I do, I know that it never hurts for me to be served up a reminder from time to time.
So hey… the next time you’re getting frustrated with someone because they’re resistant to change – and you feel like you’re pulling teeth to get anything to happen – just remind yourself of the view they’ve got from the dentists chair as opposed to the view you have while looming over them.
