The "sales" analogy has been useful for me at work. The notion that I can't tell the plant sites what to do, and that I need to respect their autonomy, has--ironically--accelerated acceptance of my projects.
But the "sales" analogy isn't perfect. I have SOME authority, SOME right to be heard. Although I'm demanding less, although I recognize that plants have final say over how they run their businesses, there are times when I have had to assert myself. My programs have enough leadership support that I can push for a response, remind sites of leadership choices, escalate issues to hierarchy, and challenge false statements.
Some of this happened this last week. I was pleased with myself for calling plant managers, disagreeing with leadership in meetings, and demanding that some meetings happen earlier than the sites wanted. This worked well for me. I was able to push forward two stalled projects, and I think my forcefulness persuaded some leaders to buy into my position. I still recognize that ultimately the sites can always say "no" to my projects. They might get in trouble for this if my project has strong leadership support, but they can still say "no" and I believe I need to make sure that the sites feel my respect for their autonomy. But this isn't a pure salesperson-customer relationship. We are teammates working for the same firm. What they can't do, what makes this different than pure sales, is that they can't slam the door.
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