Dr. Elbie talks to a few of the old machinists and they laugh at his idea to reduce setup dramatically, like 90%. It is an insult, a slap in the face. They know what they are doing and this scrawny consultant thinks he knows more than them. To add insult to injury, Mr Grimes, the owner of this company has signed up Dr. Elbie to teach them about Problem Solving in a classroom for several weeks. The fun part of this exchange is that it is one that I encounter in just about every client I have ever delivered this program to. It just infuriates the old guys who know everything. Well, when setup accounts for 25% of the plants direct labor, then you had better do something and that is what Mr. Grimes is doing.
A friend of mine put me onto a book entitled, "Switch" by two brothers Chip and Dan Heath.

I mention this because it has provided me a slick way to help clients get a better handle on both sales and change. The Heath's point out that change is controlled by two parts of the brain: the logical part and the emotional part. (Bear with me here, of course change is a lot more complicated than this but these thoughts are very useful in thinking through what is going on in both sales and change.) We all know the situation. We make a logical presentation to a client, cover all the issues and no deal. On the other hand, the person that you are trying to move to change or to make a sale has a million reasons why not to buy: "it's not a good time of year," "I don't feel comfortable," etc. You hear these arguments all the time and you can't see what to do.

But the Heath's bring up a third part of the change or sales process and that is the path that the buyer or change target has to take. It has to be an easy path to change. There can be no uncertainty in what the person is buying into.

Here is the great insight that I got from the book. The Heath's go on to give us an analogy that is very useful. They look at the logical part of the brain as the rider with the reins of the elephant, the emotional part of the brain. So if you want to change you have to control the elephant. And you design the path to change as being easy for the elephant to follow. It's that simple. Create an environment to incubate ideas, action and change.
If you got nothing else from the blurb, that is a goldmine to help think thru how you change an organization. Once you get the employees moving so that they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the change process is amazing.
Listen on. Best, Len Bertain.