Do turkeys vote for Christmas?

This is a phrase that has now (officially) entered our language, and is a cynical/superior quip about people agreeing to things which will have a bad outcome for them. It got me thinking the other day when I noticed my reaction to an idea that came out from the centre of an ‘association’ I belong to. The idea was basically sound, we had done this before and it worked well, but:-

• It was one of those suggestions you couldn’t politely refuse (at least not without being judged), so
• Effectively I had little real choice, and
• It grabbed a slice of my private time!

I was aware of emotionally railing against this, and feeling like an eight year told to do his homework before he could watch the telly. “Mmmm..” I thought, “This is what happens in most new programmes.”

The thing is, if you ask people to do something different, even something that they nominally approve of, but actually give them no real choice and don’t involve them in the decision making process; then, of course, they exercise they only power you have left them and they (at least emotionally) opt out. You simply have to engage & involve people if you want them to go along. It may take longer in the short term, but it is the only way to really gain buy in.

“Most turkeys taste better the day after…. my mother’s tasted better the day before.” Rita Rudner

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 09:02 and is filed under Business Change, Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.