Have you ever introduced a new technology that was really top-notch, but no one used it? Maybe you forgot to work on the acceptance part upfront.
When introducing a technical solution, a new technology, a business transformation, or a change initiative in general, the Effectiveness of it is ruled by its Quality. We all find that pretty obvious and as a result, we focus heavily on quality.
A few examples:
· an engineer wants to design the best manufacturing method for a given product
· a manager wants to define the best strategy
· an IT guy wants to implement the best application.
In all cases, “best” means “quality”.
But that is not enough.
The Effectiveness of a technical solution, a management decision, etc. is equally dependent on the Acceptance of it, and that calls for other actions. You have to create acceptance by pro-actively convincing people of what you do and why you do it, you have to look for common grounds, search for objections and eliminate them, picture the whole framework, and define the What’s In It For Them.
All the words I used so far in this article, are packed in this simple but insightful formula:
E = Q x A
Where E stands for effectiveness, Q for quality and A for acceptance.
That’s it. It’s as easy as that.
Now next time someone proposes you something he or she wants to implement, and gives you all kinds of arguments that feed the Q, ask what he or she will do to raise the A. Explain that a high Q but a low A will result in poor effectiveness. After a couple of times, people will get the point.
I’ve seen it in practice, and it works. People know how to raise the A, they just need someone who reminds them of it.