Week 1: Becoming a Catalyst

How could they be so clueless was the recurring thought I had at the height of my frustration. During my more rational times, I would also ask myself what am I missing?

I was working at a company whose problem seemed to have such an obvious solution. I’d voiced that solution to everyone who would listen. They were aware of the problem and acknowledged a need for change but…didn’t.

In a nutshell, the company had a retention and hiring problem. Many of the other companies in our industry faced the same problem. Competing for talent in this market could only be described in one word – CRAZY.

There were far more jobs than there were qualified candidates to fill them. For a given job, there were at least 15 companies one could work for in order to fill it.

Adding to that supply and demand problem, benefits and pay were arguably the same from one company to the next.

The key to solving this problem was being able to offer something above and beyond the benefits and pay. It needed to reliably bring in candidates because no one else offered it.

We, along with most other companies, had been trying to solve this problem in the exact same way – offering sign on bonuses, hosting happy (recruiting) hours, posting exciting signs advertising the exciting work, etc.

It made sense. These were activities they could carry out relatively quickly. They could track progress indicators like “how many people turned out for free drinks and food.” Despite how massive a turnout, this rarely converted into a hire.

Instead, I suggested redirecting the resources from those activities and turning inward to focus on increasing the engagement of our current employees. For many legitimate reasons, I was certain this would work! In the face of so many options, the top talent we wanted to retain and attract was looking for “more.”

Now, how a given person defines “more” certainly varies but typically falls into three categories:

1. great company culture
2. opportunities for technical leadership
3. opportunities to learn the business side of an organization in hopes of starting their own company one day

Despite my amazing suggestion and the many passionate ways I tried to emphasize how on point this approach would be, as soon as someone suggested a new food truck, that was what we pursued.

Doh!

What was especially baffling to me was that we had been doing the same thing for several years and were still facing the same problem. At a minimum, I felt like we should all agree that we had to do SOMETHING different even if my approach wasn’t chosen.

Admittedly, that company still faces the same challenge many years later and I am still convinced my suggestion is correct. But, let’s be honest – who cares if it’s the right suggestion because I was ineffective in getting them to adopt it.

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

Enter The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind by Jonah Berger.

This week’s focus of the professional development plan was on the Introduction of this book. After reading it, I can already see the many ways I was flat out taking the wrong approach.

Here are the main points I got from it.

• “People and organizations are guided by conservation of momentum. Inertia. They tend to do what they’ve always done.”
• Our natural tendency to try to affect change is through pushing – providing “more information, more facts, more reasons, more arguments, etc.” People don’t respond the way we expect to that – they push back.
• In Chemistry, catalysts help to speed up processes not by adding more of what the process needs (temperature, pressure, etc.) but by “reducing the amount of energy required for reactions to occur.”
• “Being a catalyst [means] changing minds by removing roadblocks and lowering the barriers that keep people from taking action.”
• “Rather than asking what might convince someone to change, catalysts start with a more basic question: Why hasn’t that person changed already? What is blocking them?”

My initial reaction is mixed. On one hand, I feel encouraged. There’s so much new information and the book promises to offer strategies to be more successful in changing someone’s mind.

On the other hand, it feels like a daunting undertaking. Despite not working, it somehow felt easier when I thought all I needed to do was to find the right stats and information and present them in the right way. Clearly, that’s only one part of the puzzle.

In reflecting on the situation I described above, inertia likely captures the root of the challenge well. I also fell into the trap of “pushing.” I think this is natural especially for technical leaders. Our worlds rely on concrete data and being able to prove things to be true. A logical, well-thought out argument should be enough to change someone’s mind. Hmph!

Embarrassingly, I didn’t think too much about the other people in the situation to try to resolve it. I honestly assumed they were unable to see the big picture or unwilling to invest in the long term. On my most pessimistic days, I considered them selfish and assumed they were only thinking of their end of year bonus.

After reading this chapter, I can already see how changing my perspective could have led to more success.

👉🏽 I could have lowered the barrier to change by suggesting an intermediate plan - one that didn’t require a total redirection of resources and could have a demonstrable win even if on a smaller scale than my initial proposal.

👉🏽 I could have asked more questions to understand their hesitation or to understand why they thought yet another food truck would make a difference.

Mostly I’m excited! I feel empowered with the new toolkit I’m developing.

Thank you for reading and if you have insight from your own experiences, please drop a comment!