How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
(OP)
New job, new workflows, new people to interact with, new responsibilities. At the new job we are getting ready to implement new/modern/web-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) and PLM (product lifecycle management) systems. I have been made a project lead and administrator for the PLM side of things. Part of my duties involves coordinating between several distributed sites. People doing their current jobs have been doing them "for years", which seems to be close to 5-8yrs. That's a long enough time to get comfortable and complacent, and adopt the ill-fated "we've always done it this way" mentality.
I'm trying to reach out to everyone so they can voice their concerns, and I can get some "I'd fix it like this if I could" suggestions. I'm also trying to put them at ease about the inevitable changes to their world, and explain the benefits of the new systems. As probably normal, I am experiencing some emotional responses and resistance. As an example, one person has been in charge of issuing part numbers. The format and reasoning behind the format makes little sense. When I ask about it, I am given good explanations for process in a manual system. When I try to bring up examples of why the current system is not effective, I get agreement but it is swept under the rug as "usually never happens" or "yes, sometimes my system fails". When I try to speak about the upcoming automated system and how things could change to make things more efficient and streamlined, I get the "fine, do what you want" responses.
I am generally a nice guy, and want to get consensus from the key players but it isn't happening. My supervisor is of the hands-off approach. My communications with key players have been via Lync (still Skype), Webex, or GoTo Meetings. My supervisor agrees with me face-to-face, but doesn't "publicly" support my arguments in these other venues. I'm looking for sage advice.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
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I'm trying to reach out to everyone so they can voice their concerns, and I can get some "I'd fix it like this if I could" suggestions. I'm also trying to put them at ease about the inevitable changes to their world, and explain the benefits of the new systems. As probably normal, I am experiencing some emotional responses and resistance. As an example, one person has been in charge of issuing part numbers. The format and reasoning behind the format makes little sense. When I ask about it, I am given good explanations for process in a manual system. When I try to bring up examples of why the current system is not effective, I get agreement but it is swept under the rug as "usually never happens" or "yes, sometimes my system fails". When I try to speak about the upcoming automated system and how things could change to make things more efficient and streamlined, I get the "fine, do what you want" responses.
I am generally a nice guy, and want to get consensus from the key players but it isn't happening. My supervisor is of the hands-off approach. My communications with key players have been via Lync (still Skype), Webex, or GoTo Meetings. My supervisor agrees with me face-to-face, but doesn't "publicly" support my arguments in these other venues. I'm looking for sage advice.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?





RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
The biggest success I ever had setting things up on computers was when we set up to use PordWerfect to write up parts lists. This was a long time ago. I realized that a bunch of low paid, unskilled clerks were going to be trying make sense of descriptions like CAP SCREW HEX SOKCET, CAP SCREW, SOCKET HAD CAP SCR, HSHCS, and such, and were not going to realize that all actually are the same thing. I was determined to have letter perfect parts lists. (typos deliberate)
I can touch type. This rendered me invincible. I typed up a list of fasteners that we would use. Anyone needing to populate a parts list would load my file and copy and paste the appropriate BOM entry. A few years later, our fastener entries were letter perfect. People had a choice. They could do it my way or they could do it the hard way.
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JHG
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
One other tip.
Don't assume you know how to do their jobs. If you control the work process for some job you don't do, you are probably doing it wrong. Your system should be, if at all possible, transparent to the way people do their work.
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JHG
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
I have found that extensive process flow diagrams can show the big picture of how information gets from one department to another to illustrate 'the why'
Another resource is temporary workers or co-ops to man-handle data conversion to clean up years of 'almost following a process'
Run pilot programs to prove out your new processes and work out the bugs
Don't be afraid to sideline processes that just aren't working; you can always go back and rework them after the fact and allows you to carry the program forward to prove out the remaining processes
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
The direct approach saves a lot of time, IMO. Rarely does someone get moved out of the way, but it does happen from time to time.
Good luck,
Latexman
To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
When confronted with an argument along the lines of "we've always done it that way", I cringe. I had a long diatribe I was going to write in response, but, in the end, Latexman said what I was going to say, just more succinctly.
Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
Being a manager for the first time, it took some time to sort out when I was wrong about something vs when others were being unreasonable. I had many a time where I felt unsure or wasn't confident. I sought advice of others with management experience more than once! I found that certain things were better discussed with managers I know outside of my company.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
Adjustment to a good system or to a principle is great school of life, adjustment to B/S is an act of moral and intellectual capitulation.
Dejan IVANOVIC
Process Engineer, MSChE
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
I've seen too many managers come in after reading things like 'your iceberg is melting' or 'first rule is break all the rules' and scrap an existing workflow without understanding the consequences. Typically they make a lot of noise and then move on to other projects and leave a broken process behind, often worse than the original process
Another mistake commonly made is creating a process that doesn't handle emergency situations - late design changes, forced vendor changes, etc.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
That will give you lots of pointers in how to proceed.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
Good luck,
Latexman
To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
The High Finance and Principles of Selection chapters still make my toes curl.
A.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
In short - make a tracking matrix.
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
I would say try to understand what they do now & how & why etc. as coming in and not fully taking stock of the existing situation will pi$$ folks off. Sadly I was about the last of my team to be hired and my colleagues had already ruffled a few feathers.
Also, if some of the folks are up to their necks in if fighting proverbial Alligators, they may not be too concerned about you trying to improve the valves on the drainage pumps.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?
RE: How to be a Friendly Conquerer?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?