Selling Quality to Management: How
to Get Management Buy-In to New April 30th, 2012 Quality Initiatives Featuring Guest Speaker: Brien Palmer, InterLINK Management Consulting Hosted by: IBS America THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

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Brien Palmer  Quality and
Management Consultant for 20+ years  “Economic Case for Quality” team leader (Pittsburgh pilot run)  Past chair of American Society for Quality, Pittsburgh chapter  CoREM Board trustee  Managing Principal in InterLINK Management Consulting 3 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Agenda  Current Situation 
How Executives Think  How to “Sell” Ideas  Focusing on Business: Using a Business Case  Selling Ideas to Your Organization  Gaining Comfort Around Top Management  Q&A IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

The Business Case for This
Webinar 1. Why should we do this? To facilitate Quality principles in service to our organizations and our careers. 2. What if we did NOT do it? Our good ideas would not get implemented, hurting the organization and frustrating ourselves. 3. What do we want when we finish? Skills in “selling” Quality ideas to our organizations, resulting in better performance, competitive success, and more-skilled Quality professionals 5 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Some Crazy-Bad Projects 1. No
customer input, no project plan, schedule accountability, no priorities, managed by the vendor, no sponsorship, no attempt to create acceptance by the user community, and no forum for dissent or criticism. (People talked to me, but would not speak up in meetings.) 2. Manager (founder’s daughter) would not talk to consultants, would not address her role in the process, would not agree on work rules. 6 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Current State  Technical Skills
vs. Interpersonal Skills  How Decisions Really Get Made  Business and Personal Costs of Poor Management-communication Skills 7 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

You Need TWO Things 1.
A Worthy 1. The Ability to Idea SELL the Idea IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

How NOT to do it
 Point out a problem and walk away.  Focus on regulatory requirements but not business needs.  Never leave the department.  Over-use “jargon”.  Avoid senior managers. 9 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

How TO do it 
Become Project Manager of your idea  Work with Other People.  Get a management sponsor  Create teams, partnerships, alliances, etc.  Understand your Management and put your idea in their context  Their Objectives  Business Case  Cost/Benefits (ROI)  Building Organizational Consensus 10 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

How Executives Think  Big
Picture vs. Department or Project Focus  Intuition vs. Analysis  Quick Action vs. Ducks in a Row  Boldness vs. Caution  Extraversion vs. Introversion  “The Language of Business” 11 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Economic Case for Quality: What
Sways CEOs? 89% 78% 73% 51% #1: Conversation #2: Testimonials #3: A Case Study #4: Competitor’s with peer CEO Financial Returns 12 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

“Economic Case for Quality” Resources
 www.makinggoodgreat.org  www.asq.org/economic-case/  What Do CEOs Think About Quality? Quality Progress Magazine, May 2004  Making the Economic Case for Quality, by John Ryan (ASQ White Paper) 13 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

How to Quantify Cost Benefits
Use internal CFO resources  Share assumptions and invite participation  Offer to do a pilot run, then measure results  Let your Financial people talk 14 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Building the Business Case 1)
Why should we do this? 2) What if we did NOT do it? 3) What do we want when we finish? 15 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Business Case Considerations  Address
why any action is necessary. (If this is not clear, why bother doing anything?)  Emphasize the costs of NOT doing the thing. (People will automatically focus on the costs of doing it.)  Focus on the outcomes, not the process 16 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Uses of the Business Case:
 In selling ideas to executive teams  In meetings where you have prepared a coalition of supporters  At the beginning of a presentation, in order to reconnect with the reasons for the project 17 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Sample Business Case:  We
waste a lot of time getting approval for small parts during product development. We’d like to authorize each engineer to spend $100 without signature.  If we don’t do this, we’ll risk more delays in product development.  With a $100 limit, we will still have protection, but we’ll eliminate many delays. 18 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Practice in BUILDING A SIMPLE
BUSINESS CASE: a speed exercise  Think of a Real Quality Idea You Have. Examples:  Create an employee suggestion system  Qualify the company to an ISO standard  Track certain quality metrics  Introducing a corrective action/preventive action system  Survey employees re: effectiveness of work processes  Do a kaizen or a lean blitz in a particular area  Posting visible metrics in the work areas  Track and analyze problems on a regular basis. (e.g., material review board)  Introduce standardized work processes and procedures  Jot It Down  Consider the Following: 1) Why should we do this? IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Selling Ideas  The Connotations
of “Selling”  “Why Should Anybody Care?” Tune in to WII-FM  Use the Language of Business 20 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Principles of Consultative Selling 
Helping the Executive, from their perspective (not yours)  Think “Pull”, not “Push”  Trust and Selling 21 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Selling Ideas Across an Organization
 Gather like-minded colleagues and form a group (formal team or ad hoc working group)  Get a management sponsor  Plan informal meetings with a critical mass of people: stakeholders, experts, and decision-makers.  Keep meetings exploratory. Use probing questions. Get their opinions.  Refine your proposal based on feedback. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Tools for Organizational Interviews 
Use your business case to form an “elevator speech” that:  Highlights the problem and current pain  Outlines your solution  Explains your plan to get organizational acceptance by ice  sp ract rs ake embe Takes only 60-90 seconds t This am m te  Ask probing questions  Ask for their opinion and input IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Some Goals of Organizational Interviews
 Test the idea across several departments  See how people feel about it.  Ask for advice and help.  Gain ownership on their part, if possible.  See how opponents can be influenced. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Presenting to Management IBS Overview
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What are the Challenges? 
You are exposing yourself to people who could affect your career.  Senior Managers can be impatient, brusque and blunt.  It is hard to get and keep their attention.  The topic probably means a great deal to you but less to them.  They can ask questions that exceed your area of expertise. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Planning the Management Presentation (1
of 3) • Before the presentation, BE PREPARED! Previously engage a majority of the decision makers. • Know Your Audience, and shape your message to them. • Prepare a quick-hit business case (less than one minute) and START with this slide. • Use a human narrative, especially under “What if we did NOT do this” • Illustrate with anecdotes and stories. • Make it interesting, not just technical. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Planning the Management Presentation (2
of 3)  Emphasize why this is important.  Tell them that you will ask for their action.  Make major points. Illustrate with human narratives (stories) whenever possible.  Use graphics whenever possible too illustrate data.  Stay strategic (i.e., high-level). For detail, offer handouts, hip-pocket slides and/or the big honkin’ book. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Planning the Management Presentation (3
of 3)  Try to set a theme that you use throughout.  Move briskly. If you did your job well, you are reiterating information, not presenting it for the first time.  Plan to end at 20-30 minutes, with a summary, and a call to action.  Review your presentation and your meeting plan with your sponsor, especially on how to handle objections. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Maintaining Your Poise  Remember,
people want you to succeed.  Rehearse your talk. Consider a dry run.  Consider memorizing your introductory slides. (After the first couple of minutes, you will get past your nervousness.)  When practicing, use positive imagery, like professional athletes.  Remember, you will have done your job. Now, its their job.  Breathe! IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

DURING the Presentation • At
the beginning, announce that you would like a decision. • Finish your presentation at about 20-30 minutes (not at 60 minutes.) • ASK for the decision. • Handle questions and objections in accordance with position and expertise. • Let your sponsor play a role. IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Learning Comfort Around Top Management
 What Causes Discomfort around Managers? 32 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Strategies for Developing Comfort 
Practice  Assignments and Projects  Develop Coalitions  Use Outsiders and Surrogates  Questions and Active Listening  The Value of Discomfort 33 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Thoughts to Take Away 
Become Project Manager of your idea  Work with Other People.  Get a management sponsor  Create teams, partnerships, alliances, etc.  Understand your Management and put your idea in their context  Their Objectives  Business Case  Cost/Benefits (ROI)  Building Organizational Consensus 34 IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE

Thank You! Questions? IBS Overview
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For Further Information…  Making
Change Work: Practical Tools for Overcoming Human Resistance to Change, by Brien Palmer. Published by ASQ’s Quality Press  The Case for Quality—Taking it to Management. Webinar sponsored by ASQ.  Selling Quality to Management: How to Get Management Buy-In to Qu , IBS America-Sponsored Whitepaper written by Brien Palmer IBS Overview THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGE