Page 63 - The Power to Change Anything

52 INFLUENCER

After several more influence attempts that used snappy
charts, multimedia effects, and well-rehearsed speeches, the
employees still didn’t believe that their competitors were
40 percent more productive. Realizing that words were cheap
and that the hourly troops simply didn’t trust the messengers
anyway, the plant leaders arranged for a team of 10 hourly
employees to get unprecedented access to a Japanese manufac-
turing plant. It was time for a field trip.
The leaders hoped that once the employees watched their
hard-working Japanese competitors in action, they could see
and hear for themselves just how serious the threat was. As you
might guess, the hourly employees had their own agenda for
the trip. They climbed into the jumbo jet for the sole purpose
of exposing the bald-faced lie. There was no way that the
Japanese employees worked harder than they did!
Ten minutes into the Japanese plant tour, the fact-finding
team decided that it was all a sham. People were working hard,
no question, but they were laboring at a pace that was far faster
than normal because they were being watched. From that point
on, nothing could convince the visitors that they were observ-
ing a normal day at work.
Later that night the team hatched a plot to uncover the lie.
Team members quietly entered the plant unannounced and
watched the Japanese night shift at work. Instead of catching
their competitors plodding along and messing around (as they
themselves often did back in the United States), the night-shift
employees appeared to work, if anything, faster than the day-
shift employees.
Now the visitors believed the threat. They didn’t like it, but
they believed it. Consequently, the born-again team members
returned home with the mission of convincing their teammates
that if they didn’t find a way to work harder, one day they would
all lose their jobs. But how could they convince their peers with
anything other than a heartfelt trip report (read verbal persua-
sion on steroids)?