Page 171 - The Power to Change Anything

160 INFLUENCER

or unmotivated team members were eventually going to kill
their efforts, but that no one—including the project managers
themselves—could bring the issues out into the open.
So, what could the project managers, health-care profes-
sionals, or the rust-belt change agents have done to solve their
pressing problems? When it came to productivity, we had
been routinely told that speaking about the issue in public
would make people angry. We were told that talking about the
problem would cast us in a bad light and only make the prob-
lem worse. And we listened.
Here’s what we should have done. First, we should never
have accepted the argument that it’s wrong to talk openly and
publicly about a problem. Critics often do their best to shut
people up by labeling a topic as “undiscussable.” To confront
this attack on open dialogue, we should have gathered data that
shined light on the problem. Then we should have presented
these data to the leaders of the organization as well as to the
opinion leaders of the workforce. Next we should have dis-
cussed the inevitable consequences of not changing.
We should have insisted on a frank discussion of the pros
and cons of the existing productivity levels—along with the
underlying causes. The productivity norms had to change.
That’s a given. But, more importantly, the norm that mandated
silence had to change first. The same is true in all the exam-
ples we’ve shared—from hospital-transmitted diseases to proj-
ect management failures. When you make the undiscussable
discussable, you openly embrace rather than fight the power
of social influence.

Create a Village

Now for our final use of social support. Some problems will
never wilt at the mere glance of a stranger in a white lab jacket.
These challenges are so large that they require opinion lead-
ers to step up and lead the way. Other problems will go away