Entrenched Problems Have Multiple Root Causes

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:14:00 GMT

If there’s one message to take from our book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, it’s that influencers succeed because they enlist a critical mass of our six sources of influence. They recognize that entrenched problems don’t stem from a single root cause, but from multiple root causes. So they address every one of the causes—not just the cause that suits their fancy.

Today I’m reviewing a study that dramatically illustrates these multiple root causes. The study looks at Teamwork, a fundamental building block of every organization.

We collected data from two industries: healthcare professionals and professional services, and examined two team behaviors: speaking up when you have a concern and intimidating others. We predicted we’d find barriers in each of our six sources, and we did. Here I’ll share the data we collected from professional-services firms related to “speaking up.”

Source 1: Personal Motivation: Do people derive enjoyment, fulfillment, identity, or self respect from the vital behaviors?

86% said people “don’t see the “ability to speak up” as an important part of their role—they don’t take professional pride in this ability.”

Source 2: Personal Ability: Do people have the knowledge, skills, and emotional control to perform the vital behaviors?

86% said people “find it difficult to speak up—especially when it’s a person who has a bad reputation or seems frustrated right now.”

Source 3: Social Motivation: Do others—peers, managers, friends, relatives, etc--provide sources of motivation to perform the vital behaviors?

87% said people “don’t speak up because they doubt leaders will back them up if they do.”

Source 4 Social Ability: Do others provide the resources and assistance required for the person to perform the vital behaviors?

82% said “bystanders who observe rudeness, intimidation, or someone being "put in their place" fail to hold their peers accountable for their unprofessional behavior.”

Source 5 Structural Motivation: Do the formal selection, appraisal, promotion, reward, and discipline systems motivate the person to perform the vital behaviors?

63% said their “There are too few rewards and too little recognition. At the end of the day people don’t feel appreciated enough.”

Source 6 Structural Ability: Does the environment make the vital behaviors easier or more convenient, and make the wrong behaviors tougher or less convenient.

85% said that “the most common excuses for not speaking up include, “There wasn’t time” and “It wasn’t my role.” These obstacles are real and need to be addressed.”

No wonder it’s tough to get people to speak up! They are facing challenges in each of our six sources. The data for healthcare professionals was the same and the data for intimidation mirrored the data for speaking up. A less optimistic person might throw in the towel.

However, the Six Source Model gives us a roadmap that makes success inevitable. Of course we’re not saying these changes will be easy, but they’re certainly within everyone’s grasp. The key is to engage every one of the six sources of influence. Your influence strategy needs to root out all six of the root causes that are keeping the status quo so firmly planted in the ground.

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Entrenched Problems Have Multiple Root Causes