I was brought in to a large manufacturing organization to implement a major performance improvement program (100% Proficiency®, click here for more information).  Mike, the senior executive who brought me in, assigned a team to work with me on implementation and he put Tom, a strong-willed engineering manager, in charge of the team.

Tom did everything he could to delay and sabotage the program.  

On the surface, Tom was polite to me. But I could feel his dislike…for me and the project.  He avoided eye contact.  He answered questions with cruelly short answers.  He did nothing without being prodded.  He assigned team members other responsibilities so they didn’t have time to work on this one.  He blew past every deadline and didn’t seem to care.  He answered everything with, “We’re working on it.  Doing the best we can.”

Everyone on the team knew what was going on, but they were intimidated by Tom and stayed quiet, waiting to see how it played out.

I went back to Mike and said, “We need to replace Tom with someone who really wants to do this. The program will fail with him in charge.”

George said, “I don’t have anyone else.  It’s Tom or no one.”

I found Tom and asked if he had a moment to talk. He wasn’t happy about it, but said, “Okay.” We walked into a conference room and closed the door.

Everyone watched us go in.  I found out later they called it, “The Showdown.”  Their money was on Tom.

Two hours later the door opened and Tom went straight to Mike’s office.  Mike expected the worst when Tom burst in, but Tom was smiling and enthusiastic. Energized. He told Mike all the great benefits they’d see from the program and showed him the implementation strategy he’d worked out during our meeting, a rather brilliant plan only he could have devised for how to use their small pool of resources to make this major project work with their current unforgiving production demands.

Then Tom assembled the team, briefed them on the plan and white-board organized them to achieve a very aggressive timeline for implementation.  He told them their success metrics, told them to get it done and that he was there if they ran into problems.  Everyone was surprised but smiling.

Mike heard about the extraordinary team meeting, called me into his office and told me that I had “very powerful persuasion skills.” Mike said, “Whatever you told him, it really worked.”

The team pulled me aside and wanted to know what I said to create this turn-around. They thought I’d spoken some “magic words” that cast a spell over Tom.

I want you to stop and think about this.

Most of the world thinks it’s what I said.

It wasn’t.

Can you see that if I said anything, Tom wasn’t having any of it?

I’m sure you can imagine Tom as you’re reading this.  Are you imagining someone who’s interested in anything I have to say?  No. No. No.

Most people, when faced with a situation like this, think they have to come up with “magic words”.

My clients have recently asked me for things like “stealth persuasion” and “techniques for releasing hormones in the other person’s brain” that will make them “accept” their ideas. I kid you not - I’ve had requests for both of these in the last two weeks.

So what went on in that room for two hours?

That’s a real question.  What creates this kind of immediate turn-around?  Email me your answer.  Take this as an opportunity to exercise your mind.

Next week I will tell you what I did. 

No doubt about it.  What I did was absolute magic.

Tell me what you think I did that created this magic.

And then I’ll show you how you can do it for yourself.

Be the cause!

(Start from the beginning of the series - The secret to melting resistance...)