I've been trying to improve some spreadsheets by baking in more knowledge in them but I've come across severe resistance from the management whom I can't seem to convince of the value in reducing the data entry work involved. My peers seem to understand and accept the value in the changes I am pushing.
What do you think the root cause of such behavior is?
How did you overcome such resistance? Saving Changes...
Khai Ng.IT PMO | IT Project Manager| TTGROUPHanoi, Viet Nam
The root cause is that you may had not completed the root cause analysis diagram of your changes to present it to your managers. Change may be needed but the way to make change is more important than the change itself. Your way of communication can also contribute to the resistance. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Anonymous
Interesting your question
Thanks for sharing
I would say that you can practice the 3 Habits of Public Victory proposed by Stephen Covey
1. Think Win-Win
2. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
3. Synergize Saving Changes...
Your question demonstrates a certain degree of disconnect between management and the people that work for them. Since you have convinced the people who would benefit of the advantages of your approach, you should take two more steps.
1. Identify who this would impact - not only the manager, but the upstream and downstream impacts (if any) and people responsible.
2. Present as a formal change, include the stakeholders above AND the team members who benefit. Sell the idea not only in terms of the team, but time saved, $$ impact, u/s and d/s benefits. Act as a team, but as though this is a 'normal' change of low impact but high return. Think how these managers want to be seen by their seniors / peers and sell that angle as well. Saving Changes...
Is the improvement for your own personal gain and understanding or is it for the whole project team. Sometimes what we think is a good idea and have difficulty selling it to other people on our project team, it means it may not be as good an idea as you think. A simple approach would be first to draw up and pros and cons list, Then review the list and still see if it makes sense to push the idea further. If not then do not pursue it any further. If you think their is still validity behind your original assumption then call a meeting, outline your case and look for support from your project team. The worse than can happen is that everybody says no.
Daire Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I've been in a similar situation where I was chastised by my boss for developing spreadsheet models that required more skills than he had. Lesson: make sure to document what you've done, not just for the users, but for those who will have to maintain it.
There may also be an intellectual property facet to your situation. Perhaps some of the "knowledge" you baked into the spreadsheet is proprietary and confidential? Saving Changes...
Jonathan LeeBusiness Development Manager| Symphony Communication Services LLCSingapore, Singapore, Singapore
Hi poster, I have certainly dealt with this constantly and can identify. Please never lose this spirit of process-improvement, and press on!
One approach I've found useful is to walk through the process with management, explain the difference from the user's perspective. Additionally, make a quantitative argument (e.g. man hours saved). Cost / time savings are quite difficult to argue against. Saving Changes...
This is an example of resistance to change. You can overcome this showing results in a temporary test using the new templates you suggest. With this strategy, management persons evaluate the positive results and are more open to the implementation of these changes. Try to get permission to implement and introduce a temporary small set of templates. Saving Changes...
Management seems here to be in the "this is the way we've always done it" mindset.
The best way to get them to embrace change is show a benefit - dollars and cents (reduced staff hours) and/or less time to complete a project. You should be able to estimate how much time/labor this would save and extrapolate on a larger scale. If you can show a gain monetarily or schedule wise on a change you can suggest piloting it.
Consider the pilot a project and plan accordingly Saving Changes...
Wendy EnglishSenior Project Manager| Humphrey ProductsKalamazoo, Mi, United States
I would try to get the ones resisting the change to be part of the solution. Perhaps they have input that would allow you to get their buy-in. Saving Changes...
I request not to post questions anonymously.
Try to access the impact of such improvement on the relevant processes and stakeholders. The answer will definitely lie there.
I don't mind that they post anonymous , some people prefers to keep it like that or have an agreement with their employer. Saving Changes...
