Selling a more open environment to management

Dear Bob …

I actually agree with your position [on opening up PCs, see for example “The feasibility of unlocked desktops,” Keep the Joint Running, 3/24/2008] and I try to advocate policies that only “punish the guilty”, but this is a very hard sell in the boardroom. Directors will not make decisions based on what my gut says is the right policy. They also make it very painful to explain this position whenever something goes south and the bad apple employee floats to the top.

So, I’m looking for a way to sell an “open use” culture to the board without completely leaving my pants down around my ankles. I hate metrics also, it’s like “no business left behind” where one size “must” fit all. But unfortunately, that is the stream we are all swimming in today. If you have any specific ideas of how we can translate this message from the soapbox to the bottom line, I sure would be listening. I’m in the choir preacher Bob, now how do we sell this good news to the directors and shareholders?

– Open to open

Dear Open …

One of the best approaches is to force people in leadership roles to lead, rather than critiquing. Here’s what I mean:

Put some values in front of them that they endorse — in particular, the cultural value I mentioned, of encouraging initiative. Establish this as a precondition for specific acts of innovation — the “cultural infrastructure” that’s required for innovation to happen. Unlocking the desktop (“loosening the controls” is a better description) is part of this program.

It’s the individual acts of innovation that provide measurable benefit. The challenge: Assigning a business value to the preconditions that encourage it.

Ask the company’s leaders what value they place on establishing these preconditions.

This isn’t at all different from more commonplace questions, like how a company should evaluate the business value of cycle time improvements. You can measure cycle time all you want and demonstrate that a process change has improved it. What you can’t do is decide the financial value of a one-hour reduction.

Somebody has to accept that not all dots can be directly connected – that customers value faster delivery; that their valuing it leads to increased walletshare and retention rates, but that proving the connection probably isn’t possible.

Part of asking leaders to lead is asking them to tell you what they value, especially when the connection between good practice and business success is indirect. Some will answer the question when you ask it. Others will duck. Either response tells you something important.

– Bob