Lesson Learned #38
We were working in the food and beverage area at a beautiful Ritz-Carlton resort. It was an important meeting: we were presenting method changes that had been developed with the help of the leaders of the stewarding and banquet areas. A number of the changes involved the movement of food to and from the kitchens, so the head chef was invited to the meeting. That was a good idea. Unfortunately, none of the method changes that had been presented to the chef in advance. That was a bad idea.
As is fairly common when someone is presented with a new way of doing things, the chef objected to most of the method changes that were presented, at least as far as they concerned the kitchens. The objections weren’t overly critical, and many in fact had been already recognized and dealt with along the way. But objections are road blocks unless they are properly and effectively handled. They derailed the flow of the meeting, and with each objection the general manager became more uneasy with the level of buy-in of his management team. A herd mentality started to develop Suddenly objections led to more objections, which led to more discomfort around the room. The positive buy-in from the stewarding and banquets management started to dissipate.Three-quarters through the allotted meeting time, and less than hal way through the agenda, the GM politely asked us to do more work on selling the method changes and rescheduled the meeting for a later date.
This lesson learned here is similar to one of our company maxims (“Pre-present, pre-present, pre-present”). For any important meeting, the participants should be familiar with the material and not be presented with “new” ideas. This may seem a little odd, but it is in fact critical for managing change. By pre-presenting the information, you can handle objections on a one-to-one basis and either reach a resolution or modify the method change accordingly. Surprising people, even if the changes are relatively innocuous, is never effective.
