I had dinner recently with a friend who is the CEO of a large company. He was complaining to me about how difficult he found it to effect change. He described how his company was mired in processes that reinforced the silos within the organization, and perhaps more important, that no one appeared to clear on what their objectives were.
When he asked me if I had any ideas, I had two words of advice for him: Hot buttons.
I have found that one of the keys to bringing about genuine change is to keep it simple—that is, to begin by identifying the specific one or two elements most relevant to your company’s particular circumstances. getting people to really understand what is essential in a given situation–is crucial to moving them to action.
Leaders, and in many cases the rank-and-file employees as well, are continuously bombarded with information. Emails, printed material, videos, etc. are disseminated from many different departments, and those departments usually do not coordinate with each other regarding messaging, timing and distribution. There is always a lot of overlap in the information, and rarely is it efficiently prioritized. A major consequence of this deluge is that it is very hard for people to know what’s really important, especially as it relates to an individual doing his or her job. It’s like someone trying to locate the key to a specific door when there are a hundred similar-looking keys on the key ring. Also, having to juggle the same set of problems and operational matters over a protracted period of time causes people to behave in a highly programmatic manner, and can make them blind to important things that are right under their noses.
A hot button should be something that is very easy for you to communicate as well as something that everyone in the company can grasp, regardless of the level of their responsibility in the organization, regardless of their geographical location, etc. It could be a financial metric (we need to sell 500 sweaters every day) a basic design or production issue (we need to inspect every baby stroller we sell to make sure it is perfect), or an asset utilization (we need to ensure that we never have more than thirty days of inventory on hand). Used properly, hot buttons can really unleash an organization.
Of course, every set of circumstances in any given business is totally unique. You as a leader need to find the hot buttons that are most useful in your particular situation—to identify the one or two (three at the most) critical levers that make a difference in your business and present them so that people understand how they impact each of their specific roles or responsibilities. you have established exactly what these drivers are, everyone will be able to focus on the crucial core issues, not the peripheral matters that people often gravitate towards.
I’ve long been a big believer in hot buttons because they work so well. Among other things, they can unify a team. They also encourage people–either on their own or working in loosely defined groups—to creatively problem-solve, which by itself is very empowering to them and to everyone around them.
Hot buttons are simple but powerful tools that allow people to succeed—to build momentum and generate tremendous results.